A Russian in the Acad��mie

By ADRIAN TAHOURDIN

The writer Andre�� Makine (above) has just been elected to the Acad��mie fran��aise. Born in the former Soviet Union in 1957, where his grandmother instilled in him a love of the French language, Makine travelled to France in 1987 on a teacher���s exchange programme and decided to stay. He was subsequently granted political asylum in the country.

A mere eight years after settling in France, Makine won the Prix Goncourt with his lyrical fourth novel Le Testament fran��ais ��� a book that was firmly rooted in the author���s Siberian childhood and adolescence. A prolific author, he has published some ten novels since (all of them translated into English by Geoffrey Strachan).

The main function of the Acad��mie, which was founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, is to act as guardian of the French language. It was recently embroiled in the controversy over reforms to French spelling.

Makine is the fifth writer of Russian origin to be elected to the august body, after Henri Troyat, Joseph Kessel, Maurice Druon and the historian of Russia H��l��ne Carr��re d���Encausse, who is its permanent secretary.  He will be taking the seat (or fauteuil) vacated by the Algerian novelist Assia Djebar, who died last year. In doing so he joins the ranks of forty immortels. His most immediate predecessor is the Haitian writer Dany Laferri��re, who was elected in 2013. (The Acad��mie also boasts a British member, Michael Edwards.)

From Soviet defection to the Prix Goncourt and now the Acad��mie fran��aise in less than thirty years. It���s an impressive trajectory.