Andreï Makine

Author profile

born

September 10, 1957 in Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Andreï Makine was born in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union on 10 September 1957 and grew up in city of Penza, a provincial town about 440 miles south-east of Moscow. As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother (it is not certain whether Makine had a French grandmother; in later interviews he claimed to have learnt French from a friend), he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian.

In 1987, he went to France as member of teacher's exchange program and decided to stay. He was granted political asylum and was determined to make a living as a writer in French. However, Makine had to present his first manuscripts as translations from Russian to overcome publishers' skepticism that a newly...more

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Books by Andreï Makine

Average rating: 3.77 · 1,556 ratings · 193 reviews · 23 distinct works

	Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.73 avg rating — 671 ratings — published 1995 — 42 editions	My rating:
	Music of a Life: A Novel by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.93 avg rating — 205 ratings — published 2001 — 14 editions	My rating:
	The Woman Who Waited by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.71 avg rating — 171 ratings — published 2004 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Once upon the River Love by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.86 avg rating — 128 ratings — published 1994 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Requiem for a Lost Empire: A Novel by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.94 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 2000 — 15 editions	My rating:
	The Crime of Olga Arbyelina by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan 3.48 avg rating — 83 ratings — published 1998 — 19 editions	My rating:
	Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.87 avg rating — 46 ratings — published 1992 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 3.59 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 2003 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Life of an Unknown Man by Andreï Makine, Geoffrey Strachan (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2009 — 8 editions	My rating:
	L'Amour Humain 3.86 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 2006 — 11 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Andreï Makine

“People speak because they are afraid of silence. They speak mechanically whether aloud or to themselves. They are intoxicated by this vocal gruel that ensnares every object and every being. They talk about rain and fine weather; they talk about money, about love, about nothing. And even when they are talking about their most exalted love, they use words uttered a hundred times, threadbare phrases.”
― Andreï Makine

20 people liked it

“...she studies to be equal in a world that is no longer surprised at anything”
― Andreï Makine, The Crime of Olga Arbyelina

5 people liked it

“(...) the translator of prose is the slave of the author and the translator of poetry is his rival.”
― Andreï Makine

1 person liked it

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Polls

What contemporary Russian book would you like to read? (August/September - depending on the length)

Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine

8 votes, 33.3%

The Winter Queen: A Novel by Boris Akunin

7 votes, 29.2%

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

6 votes, 25.0%

The Yellow Arrow by Victor Pelevin

3 votes, 12.5%

Professor Martens' Departure by Jaan Kross

0 votes, 0.0%

24 total votes

4 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Graywolf Press: Weekend Reads 8/20/10	7	15	Aug 22, 2010 06:36am
Read a book from ...: Russia	31	195	Apr 17, 2011 07:19am
Discovering Russi...: Group Reading Nominations! (August) closed! Vote!	31	74	Jul 07, 2011 01:00pm
Discovering Russi...: Official Discussion: Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine	10	31	Sep 13, 2011 07:40pm
Around the World ...: Russia	7	37	Oct 05, 2011 02:53pm

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