0710 | Mother | Maxim Gorky
This reads like a cross between Dr Zhivago and the last part of The Jungle. It’s packed full of characters who, in true Russian fashion, each have seven names they…
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0662 | Paradise of the Blind | Duong Thu Huong
I thought this was going to be really good. It was the first novel translated from Vietnamese to English even though it was only published in 1988. That says a…
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0644 | The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
Littell’s meticulously researched memoir of an SS officer is a book that no one who reads it can ever forget, and that’s exactly how it should be. It’s absolutely horrific,…
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0584 | Promise at Dawn | Romain Gary
This memoir is basically a eulogy to Gary’s mother. Seeing as I have never really had a mother to speak of, this was an interesting one for me to read…
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0583 | The Radetzky March | Joseph Roth
A book filled with melancholy not only for the characters but the world in which they live, The Radetzky March is a carefully constructed memorial to a lost age. Roth…
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0574 | Against the Day | Thomas Pynchon
Absolutely pointless and not worth anyone’s time, this is a novel by a man entirely self-absorbed. It says nothing about any particular era, has no characters more three dimensional than…
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0569 | On the Eve | Ivan Turgenev
So, this is one of those novels for which an understanding of the historical context is essential for a full appreciation of its significance. The era is the early 1850s…
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0462 | The Kreutzer Sonata | Leo Tolstoy
A far cry in length from War & Peace but nonetheless this little novella packs quite the punch. On a train journey, passengers begin to gossip about a story they’ve…
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0434 | The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov
What a very, very clever book. To appreciate it, you have to be aware of the context in which it was written and for that I’d heartily recommend the excellent…
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0416 | Novel with Cocaine | M. Ageyev
Very quick read this one and it’s been a while since I dipped my feet in Russian lit. This novel brought it all back to me and would be a…
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0394 | Doctor Zhivago | Boris Pasternak
Context: One of a couple of books I read while we stayed in Port Vila, Vanuatu with this amazing view of the harbour from our veranda. REVIEW Being Russian, this…
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0352 | The Master of Petersburg | J. M. Coetzee
Context: Took my laptop to pieces to give it a clean while I read this. This included removing all the keys off the keyboard. It was disgusting under there! REVIEW…
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0340 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes
Context: Just after I finished this off, a 7.3 earthquake with more explosive force than an atomic bomb smashed a pot in our living room from 100 miles away. REVIEW…
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0330 | The Nose | Nikolai Gogol
Context: We got the first of what looks to be many bunches of bananas off our banana trees while I was reading this. REVIEW Brilliant. What an idea! Someone’s nose…
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0310 | The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy
Context: Started this at the Mapang Guesthouse in Port Moresby before heading back to the UK. REVIEW This is more of a short story than even a novella, but what…
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0294 | The Family Frying Pan – Bryce Courtenay
Context: Read this in one sitting on a day when I really couldn’t face any more interaction with villagers in Male! REVIEW I’m usually wary of any book where the…
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0269 | In Europe – Geert Mak
Context: Finally finished this off at our friends’ lovely house in Beamish, County Durham. REVIEW This was an amazing book and I can’t think why it isn’t better known. For…
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0257 | Eugene Onegin – Alexander Pushkin
Context: Read this as the sun set over Parker’s Piece in Cambridge as I waited for my wife, sister and her kids to emerge from Parkside swimming pool. REVIEW Not…