Human Love: A Novel
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Love for another person. Love for humanity as a whole. Are the two compatible or mutually exclusive? 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. However, 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. He begins in his native Angola, still struggling to liberate itself from the colonial yoke, and moves to other political 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?
“[A] powerful meditation on the price of ideology and the nature of love.” —The Daily Mail
“Makine’s prose . . . injects a sense of beauty into even the most horrific descriptions of depravity . . . This, his tenth novel, is a movement toward hope.” —Foreword Reviews
“Andreï Makine has witnessed history transform his country. His sombre, perceptive fiction reflects each ebb and flow; his quiet voice is unique. Even here, in one of his minor works, he again articulates the profundity of human experience—no small feat.” —The Irish Times
Andreï Makine
Andreï Makine is an internationally best-selling author. He is the winner of the Goncourt Prize and the Medicis Prize, the two highest literary awards in France, for his novel Dreams of My Russian Summers, which was also a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Makine was born in Siberia in 1957 and raised in the Soviet Union. Granted asylum in France in 1987, Makine was personally given French citizenship by President Jacques Chirac. He now lives in Paris. Arcade Publishing has published ten of Makine’s acclaimed novels in English.
Read more from Andreï Makine
The Archipelago of Another Life: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dreams of My Russian Summers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Music of a Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Who Waited: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLieutenant Schreiber's Country: The Story of a Forgotten Hero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Armenian Friend: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Requiem for a Lost Empire: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crime of Olga Arbyelina: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Hero's Daughter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Human Love
Related ebooks
How to Make a Zombie: The Real Life (and Death) Science of Reanimation and Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chronicles of Theza: Annihilator of Worlds part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy: Collectable Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadow Distance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild and White Fang (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Villain's Dance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOther Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Haunting of Josef Fleischer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWitches of Sark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Weird Fiction Collection #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOption for the Sword: [Not applicable] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vampire Man: The Fourth Sleep Disorder: A Research Novella Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Tomb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Curse of Zainab, the Full Novel: Son of Chaos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI, Unexplained Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDestiny Times Three Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCavern of the Shining Pool Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfession from a Jericho Jail: Second Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoldiers of the Legion, Trench-Etched Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Fierce & Fertile Tomorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSex, Bugs & UFOs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of the Raven: The Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsValley of Bones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time of White Horses: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mecca Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSTORIES OF ROARS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Things That Fly in the Night: Female Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fall of a Despot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Music . . . Oh, the Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSchool of Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Political Fiction For You
House of Cards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Nefarious Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51900: Or; The Last President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm And 1984 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to See Here: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All The King's Men: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDucks, Newburyport Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Utopia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Agent: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Against the Loveless World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enter Ghost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Advocate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Notorious Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5State of Wonder: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Schrödinger Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prodigal Summer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Chairlift Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man in Full: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diary of a Small Fish Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Guard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Human Love
29 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In lesser hands this tale of the triumph of love and the human spirit against a bleak backdrop of wars and other horrors could easily have been trite and cliched, but Makine's writing transcends this, and I found this a very moving and impressive novel. The book tells the story of Elias Almeida, an Angolan "professional revolutionary" across various African war zones over forty years, and also spells in Cuba and Soviet Russia. As one would expect from a writer brought up in the dying days of Soviet Russia, it is very strong on the moments of minor heroism that transcend the gradual decline of big ideology-driven movements and conflicts. Elias's story is told by a younger friend, a Russian agent working in Angola and other African war zones, and later a writer able to reflect on what has changed in Africa since the "end of history".In some ways this reminded me most strongly of Doctor Zhivago. Elias is motivated by an impossible and platonic love for Anna, a Siberian who rescues him from racist thugs in Moscow, and their trip to visit her mother in Siberia is pivotal - the Siberia whose landscape itself is built on the wreckage of idealistic dreams. The African backdrop moves gradually from idealistic liberation struggles via cold war power games through to anarchic wars motivated purely by greed and self interest. Petty brutality and injustice are never very far from the surface.To pack so much history and feeling into such a short story is ambitious, but for me it works and the ending is very moving, and entirely consistent with Makine's wider oeuvre, much of which is more memoir than fiction.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A sad book, a poignant story of imported mini-revolutions all over the globe, as witnessed by an Angolan participant and a Soviet "expert-turned-writer" who narrates the story. Most of Andrei Makine's books (this one is my 5th) are permeated with a melancholy streak, which by no means it makes them less appealing. His unique style, his intriguing attention to detail, uncovering so much meaning in each detail and being able to deliver this meaning to the reader are the mark of a master writer. The book won't go away after the last page is read. It persists in your mind, you don't want it to (it's too grim), but it does, provoking the question: why?...
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Found it difficult, possibly because of the translation. Didn't seem to flow.