Synopses & Reviews
In The Crime of Olga Arbyelina, Andreï Makine takes us to Villiers-la-Forêt in the summer of 1947. The inhabitants of this sleepy French town are stunned to discover two resident Russian émigrés washed up on the riverbank. The dead man was a vulgar ex-soldier; the woman-dazed and disheveled but still alive-is an elegant beauty rumored to be a member of the royal family. With the luminous prose, brilliant characterizations, and powerful evocations of bygone worlds that have garnered him both extraordinary review attention and dedicated fans, Makine weaves an intricate tale of history, passion, madness, and ultimate tragedy.
Review
...Makine...proves himself a master at bringing his characters' imaginations, fantasies, and reveries to life in exquisite, rhapsodic prose. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Review
It is a novel at once moving and seductive, creepy, sad and provocative.... This is what great literature is all about. (Detroit Free Press)