I didn't quite know where else to post this, but since he was one of the more egregious victims of Soviet censorship and an astounding but largely unknown writer, I figured this might not be a bad place.
Kross was himself an ardent and subversive advocate for the free exchange of ideas whose novels concerned themselves with the fraught relationship between candor and power. His books are funny, wistful, and damning. Kross used historical fiction to satirize authority, and since he wrote from a tiny backwater (Estonia) occupied by a titanic invader (Russia), he had a unique perspective on the ironies of multiculturalism and multilingualism.
Anyone interested in issues of censorship and free speech would do well to read Kross's masterpiece, The Czar's Madman. Kross's passing is a real loss. The Guardian's right - he really earned the Nobel he never got.
I didn't quite know where else to post this, but since he was one of the more egregious victims of Soviet censorship and an astounding but largely unknown writer, I figured this might not be a bad place.
Kross was himself an ardent and subversive advocate for the free exchange of ideas whose novels concerned themselves with the fraught relationship between candor and power. His books are funny, wistful, and damning. Kross used historical fiction to satirize authority, and since he wrote from a tiny backwater (Estonia) occupied by a titanic invader (Russia), he had a unique perspective on the ironies of multiculturalism and multilingualism.
Anyone interested in issues of censorship and free speech would do well to read Kross's masterpiece, The Czar's Madman. Kross's passing is a real loss. The Guardian's right - he really earned the Nobel he never got.