The Hero's Daughter: A Novel - Hardcover

Makine, Andreļ

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559706872 ISBN 13: 9781559706872

Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2003

Synopsis

Awarded the Soviet Union's highest military honor for his services during World War II, Ivan Dimitrovich Davidov watches his career dissolve into corrupt government practices and learns of the victimization of his former interpreter daughter, Olia. By the author of Music of a Life. A first novel. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrei Makinewas born in Russia in 1958 and emigrated to France in 1987. In 1995 his novelDreams of My Russian Summerswon the Goncourt Prize and the Médicis Prize, France's two most prestigious literary awards. 

From Publishers Weekly:

The Russian-born, Paris-based Makine vaulted into prominence with his fourth novel, Dreams of My Russian Summers, which won France's two most prestigious literary prizes. Since then, along with newer novels (most recently Music of a Life), a steady stream of his earlier work has appeared in English. Here, in his first published book, he provides an early glimpse at one of his recurring themes: the way the Soviet system prostituted-literally, in some cases-its most promising citizens. Ivan Demidov is an official Hero of the Soviet Union, a distinction he earned in the bloody defense of Moscow during WWII. Since then, he has worn the Hero's Gold Star, which earns him the respect of other citizens and the very practical right to extra rations at understocked grocery stores. For a while, he is celebrated in propagandistic television programs and asked to make patriotic speeches at elementary schools, until newer Heroes-from the fighting in Afghanistan-take his place. His talented daughter, Olya, is trained as an interpreter but sent to work at the governmental International Trade Center, where educated, attractive Russians "entertain" foreigners on whom the KGB wishes to spy. There are signs of inexperience here: Ivan and Olya are less fully realized characters than walking metaphors for Soviet exploitation. But present in this ably translated work are the seeds of the powerful social criticism that flowers in Makine's more mature novels.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1559706872
• ISBN 13: 9781559706872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224