Andreï Makine

Andreï Sergueïevitch Makine (Russian: Андрей Серге́евич Макин; born 10 September 1957) is a French novelist. He also publishes under the pseudonym Gabriel Osmonde.[1] Makine's novels include Dreams of My Russian Summers (1995) which won two top French awards, the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. He was elected to seat 5 of the Académie Française on 3 March 2016, succeeding Assia Djebar.[2]

Andreï Makine
Andreï Makine in 2013
Born (1957-09-10) 10 September 1957
Krasnoyarsk, Russian SFSR
NationalitySoviet
French
EducationMoscow State University
OccupationNovelist
Known forMember of the Académie Française

Biography

Andreï Makine was born in Krasnoyarsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union on 10 September 1957 and grew up in the city of Penza about 700 kilometres (435 mi) south-east of Moscow.[3] As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother (it is not certain whether Makine had a French grandmother; in later interviews he claimed to have learned French from a friend), he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian.

In 1987, he went to France as a member of a teacher's exchange program and decided to stay.[4] He was granted political asylum and was determined to make a living as a writer in French. However, Makine had to present his first manuscripts as translations from Russian to overcome publishers' skepticism that a newly arrived exile could write so fluently in a second language.[5] After disappointing reactions to his first two novels, it took eight months to find a publisher for his fourth, Dreams of My Russian Summers. Finally published in 1995 in France, the novel became the first in history to win both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis plus the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens.

In 2001 Makine began secretively publishing as "Gabriel Osmonde", a total of four novels over ten years, the last appearing in 2011.[1] It was a French literary mystery and many speculated about who Osmonde might be.[1] Finally in 2011 a scholar noticed Osmonde's book 20,000 femmes dans la vie d'un homme had been inspired by Makine's Dreams of My Russian Summers and Makine confirmed that he was the author.[1] Explaining why he used a pseudonym he said, "I wanted to create someone who lived far from the hurly-burly of the world".[1]

Translations

All of Makine's novels have been translated into English by Geoffrey Strachan.

Le testament français was published in English as Dreams of My Russian Summers in the United States, and under its original French title in the United Kingdom. It has also been translated into Russian by Yuliana Yahnina and Natalya Shakhovskaya, and it was first published in Russian in 1996 in the 12th issue of Foreign Literature (Иностранная литература) literary magazine.[6]

Bibliography
  • La Fille d'un héros de l'Union soviétique, 1990, Robert Laffont (A Hero's Daughter, 1996 ISBN 1-55970-687-2)
  • Confession d'un porte-drapeau déchu, 1992, Belfond (Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer, 1996 ISBN 1-55970-529-9)
  • Au temps du fleuve Amour, 1994, Editions du Félin (Once Upon the River Love, 1996 ISBN 1-55970-438-1)
  • Le Testament français, 1995, Mercure de France (Dreams of My Russian Summers, 1997 ISBN 1-55970-383-0; also published in English as Le Testament Francais)
  • Le Crime d'Olga Arbelina, 1998, Mercure de France (Crime of Olga Arbyelina, 2000 ISBN 1-55970-494-2)
  • Requiem pour l'Est, 2000, Mercure de France (Requiem for a Lost Empire, 2001 ISBN 1-55970-571-X)
  • La Musique d'une vie, 2001, Éditions du Seuil (A Life's Music, 2004 ISBN 1-55970-637-6; also published as Music of a Life)
  • La Terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme, 2003, Mercure de France (The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme, 2005 ISBN 1-55970-739-9)
  • La Femme qui attendait, 2004, Éditions du Seuil (The Woman Who Waited, 2006 ISBN 1-55970-774-7)
  • L'Amour humain, 2006, Éditions du Seuil (Human Love, 2008 ISBN 0-340-93677-0)
  • Le Monde selon Gabriel, 2007, Éditions du Rocher
  • La Vie d'un homme inconnu, 2009, Éditions du Seuil (The Life of an Unknown Man, 2010 ISBN 0-340-99878-4)
  • Cette France qu'on oublie d'aimer, 2010, Points
  • Le Livre des brèves amours éternelles, 2011, Éditions du Seuil (Brief Loves That Live Forever, 2013 ISBN 0857051768)
  • Une Femme Aimée, 2013, Éditions du Seuil (A woman loved, 2015)
  • Le Pays du lieutenant Schreiber, 2014
  • L'archipel d'une autre vie, 2016
  • Au-delà des frontières, 2019
  • L'Ami arménien, 2021, Éditions Grasset (Armenian Friend, 2021 ISBN 2246826578)


As Gabriel Osmonde

  • Le Voyage d'une femme qui n'avait plus peur de vieillir, Albin Michel, 2001
  • Les 20 000 Femmes de la vie d'un homme, Albin Michel, 2004
  • L'Œuvre de l'amour, Pygmalion, 2006
  • Alternaissance, Pygmalion, 2011

References
  1. "Who is Gabriel Osmonde? A French Literary Mystery is Solved", New York Times, April 1, 2011
  2. "L'écrivain d'origine russe Andreï Makine entre à l'Académie française" (in French). Le Monde. 3 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  3. Murielle Lucie Clément. Andreï Makine. Rodopi, 2009. pg. 141
  4. Christopher W. Lemelin, "Andrei Makine" in Multicultural Authors Since 1945(Amoia, Alba, and Bettina L Knapp, eds.). Oxford and Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004.
  5. "Torn Between Two Languages", Victor Brombert, New York Times, August 17, 1997
  6. "Иностранная литература 1996/12". Retrieved January 18, 2023.

French language links

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