"Dreams Of My Russian Summers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Makine Andrei)

Andrei Makine
Dreams Of My Russian Summers

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY Geoffrey Strachan

For Marianne Véron and Herbert Lottman
For Laura and Thierry de Montalembert
For Jean- Christophe
… it was with a childish pleasure and a profound emotion that, being unable to mention the names of so many others who must have acted similarly and thanks to whom France has survived, I gave the real names here… – Marcel Proust, Le Temps retrouvé
Does the Siberian ask heaven for olive trees, or the Provençal for cranberries? – Joseph de Maistre, Les Soirées de St. Petersbourg
I questioned the Russian about his method of work and was astonished that he did not make his translations himself, for he spoke a very pure French, with just a hint of hesitation, on account of the subtlety of his thought. He confessed to me that the Académie and its dictionary froze him. – Alphonse Daudet, Trente ans de Paris