WINNER OF THE PRIX GONCOURT AND THE PRIX MEDICIS

'A superb novel about fantasy and reality . . . It is Makine's achievement to convey the essential, with economy, grace and beauty'
SCOTSMAN
'Necessary and profound'
INDEPENDENT
'Communicates brilliantly the exquisite agony of nostalgia'
LITERARY REVIEW
Locked behind the Iron Curtain, a young boy grows up bewitched by his French grandmother's memories of Paris before the Great War. On her balcony overlooking the Siberian steppes, Charlotte Lemonnier fires her grandson's imagination with tales of the great flood in 1910, of Proust playing tennis in Neuilly and the President dying in the arms of his mistress, of avenues lined with chestnut trees and elegant cafes.
Yet despite what he also learns of her suffering in the Soviet Union, as an adolescent he finds himself proud to be Russian. Torn between two cultures, he eventually makes a choice - and faces a startling revelation.
Capturing the powerful allure of illusion, this unforgettable novel traces a sentimental and intellectual journey that embraces the dramatic history of the twentieth century.