Author(s): Andrei Makine

Fiction

'A haunting, often very tender story written in a kind of meditative fury!one of the best novels about Africa in a long time' Christopher Hope, Guardian As a child, Elias Almeida loses both his parents during the Angolan uprising against colonial rule. As an adult and professional revolutionary, he bears witness to mankind at its pitiless worst. Yet he continues to believe in a better world and in the redeeming power of love -- even though he cannot be with the woman he loves, who rescued him from thugs one snowy night on the streets of Moscow. Spanning forty years of Africa's past as a battleground between East and West, this powerful novel explores the heights and depths of human nature as it tells a profoundly affecting story of sacrifice and idealism. 'Makine writes with a vision that embraces the sidelined conflicts of recent years and illuminates what it means to live through such times. His reputation as one of the significant novelists of our age is only strengthened by this book.'