Moscow, 1939. The great author Isaac Babel is spending his last
days in the infamous Lubyanka prison, forbidden to write. His final
works have been consigned to the young archivist Pavel Dubrov, who
must destroy them. But Pavel makes a reckless decision in the face of
a vast bureaucracy of evil: he will save the stories of the writer he
so admires, whatever the cost...<
'Quietly devastating ... The book captures the stark
chill of totalitarianism better than anything since 1984' Peter Ho
Davies, The Times 'Holland writes exquisitely ... The beauty and
reality of this novel linger long after one has read - reluctantly -
its last page' Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian 'Pavel's
story is told in uninflected prose, as if embellishing the harsh,
despairing world the characters inhabit would somehow be morally
false. The simple style makes its flashes of eloquence and sombre
imagery even more startling' Time Out 'An extraordinary first novel
... exquisite ... The novel is a wrenching threnody of human suffering
- Russian and universal' Michael Binyon, The Times
DIV>
Moscow, 1939. The great author Isaac Babel is
spending his last days in the infamous Lubyanka prison, forbidden to
write. His final works have been consigned to the young archivist
Pavel Dubrov, who must destroy them. But Pavel makes a reckless
decision in the face of a vast bureaucracy of evil: he will save the
stories of the writer he so admires, whatever the cost...<
