The Life of an Unknown Man, An Unforgettable Russian Novel by A. Makine

The French (Russian b. 1957) author, Andrei Makine is the recipient of the Nat'l Bk. Critics Award & winner of the top French literary award for his novel, "My Russian Summer."  "Life of an Unknown Man" is a hauntingly inventive novel.  He captures man's immense capacity for cruelty and the indomitable human spirit.  "Life of ..." is the tale of 2 Russian men whose lives overlap.  The younger, but still elderly Shutov, becomes the bearer of the extraordinary life of Volsky:  survivor of the horrors of WWII and the gulags under Stalin's regime.   Shutov is a Russian writer of diminishing acclaim living in Paris with a much younger woman.  When Shutov's lover leaves him he returns to St. Petersberg hoping to recapture his youth & rekindle a former love.  Shutov discovers you can never go home - nothing remains the same.  At the extravagant residence of his past love, Shutov is enlisted to watch over the invalid, Volsky, presumed both deaf & mute.  Volsky will be reassigned living accommodations in the morning; his situation was a temporary solution.  Volsky is neither mute or deaf as Shutov soon discovers.  Volsky regales Shutov with his incredible story of survival during the siege of Leningrad and Stalin's dictorial reign; persecuting the Russian people & purging its history.  Makine's writing is eloquent, lyrical & memorable.  It is a testament to art's ability to sustain humanity & history. "The peace experienced from saving these fragments of truth from oblivion."  Volsky taught disabled orphans "how to exist in the world manufactured by the petty cruelty of men. "  One of Volsky's blind pupils said "when he sang about the sky he could see the clusters of stars, he understood how they might look."  Makine's novel is illuminating & life affirming, "To be on time when every second counts."