Konstantin

Description

An astonishing, rich, mesmerising novel about how the imagination can inspire the individual to greatness 1867, Ryazan, a Russian city in winter. Ten-year-old Konstantin, deafened by scarlet fever, dreams of flight - escaping to Moscow, fleeing to the silent stars. And his daring visions, pregnant with humanity's future, will take him further than anyone could believe. Moving from wolf-infested forests to the brothels of Moscow, from village life to the wondrous Age of Steam, from appalling tragedy to the discovery of a great love, Konstantin tells the beguiling story of a man who imagined the unimaginable- turning the dream of space travel into a reality.

Tom Bullough was born in 1975 and is the author of two previous novels. He lives in Breconshire, in mid-Wales, with his wife and young son.

Konstantin is that rare creature, the practical dreamer, a hero at the dawn of modernity. Beautifully written . . . a real achievement -- Andrew Miller, author of 'Pure' Mesmerizing intensity . . .daring . . . Konstantin fascinatingly brings us an imagined portrait of a boy turning into a man that refuses to give us any simple solutions * TLS * Enchanting, wonderfully eloquent. A very alluring read * Time Out * A charming novel, sensitively told * Prospect * A magnificent piece of writing ... punctuated with moments of beauty and of fascination * Polari Magazine * Bullough succeeds in translating the science of lunar travel into concrete, apposite and lyrical imagery...Here is a writer with a sculptor's sensibility * New Welsh Review * A convincing account, lyrical yet exact, of the making of a scientist. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky may not be a household name, but the author has set him squarely before us as a living, thinking, ingenious human being -- John Banville Wonderful. Historical fiction that wears history lightly * Observer * Well-written . . . moving and expressive * The Times *