Human Love
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In his most ambitious novel since Dreams of My Russian Summers, Andreï Makine takes us into the heart of Africa. His hero is Elias Almeida, a black revolutionary whose father was killed when Elias was still a child, and whose mother, to feed him, was forced to prostitute herself. Saved from death by a Catholic priest, Elias becomes a brilliant pupil, destined for greatness. But the memory of his parents turns him into an important cog in the worldwide revolutionary movement, sending him to Cuba and the Soviet Union to be trained for espionage and sabotage, first in his native Angola, still struggling to liberate itself from the colonial yoke, and then to other “hot spots.”
But what happens when a black revolutionary dedicated to bettering the world falls in love with a white woman, who wants only to live a peaceful, simple life?.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Geoffrey
Strachan
Geoffrey Strachan is a noted translator of French and German literature into English. He is best known for his renderings of the novels of French-Russian writer Andreï Makine. In addition, he has also translated works by Yasmina Réza, Nathacha Appanah, Elie Wiesel and Jérôme Ferrari. Uniquely, he has won both the Scott-Moncrieff Prize (for translation from French) and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (for translation from German).
Geoffrey Strachan is a noted translator of French and German literature into English. He is best known for his renderings of the novels of French-Russian writer Andreï Makine. In addition, he has also translated works by Yasmina Réza, Nathacha Appanah, Elie Wiesel and Jérôme Ferrari. Uniquely, he has won both the Scott-Moncrieff Prize (for translation from French) and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (for translation from German).
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
From Africa to Siberia, after the fall of the Soviet Empire with its war and slaughters. This is a novel about human dignity throughout the life of a revolutionary.