Limonov

Description

The acclaimed, astonishing life of Limonov, idol of the Soviet underground, punk-poet, lost soldier in the Balkans, and a charismatic party leader Limonov is not a fictional character, but he could have been. He's lived a hundred lives. He was a hoodlum in Ukraine, an idol of the Soviet underground, punk-poet and valet to a billionaire in Manhattan, fashion writer in Paris, lost soldier in the Balkans, and now, in the chaos after the fall of communism a charismatic party leader of a gang of political desperados.

Emmanuel Carrere, novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and biographer, is the award-winning internationally renowned author of The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), Lives Other Than My Own, My Life As A Russian Novel, Class Trip and The Mustache. Carrere lives in Paris.

He's the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty ... His "non-fiction novel", Limonov, has two explicit modes - part adventure story, part cultural-historical analysis ... it is about Carrere's exploration of himself, his Russian heritage, and what it means to be a European after the second world war, especially since the end of the cold war -- Robert McCrum * Observer * I loved Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere, which happens to be a book about a Russian guy. Like all of Carrere's work it's a sort of masterclass in creative writing -- William Leith, Books of the Year * Evening Standard * Carrere covers a lot of ground with cool honesty and careful humanity -- Sally Singer, Book of the Year * New York Times * A beguiling writer . . . Graceful and important -- John Freeman * NPR * You might not have heard of [Limonov], and after you have read this you might wish you had not heard of him, but you will certainly have enjoyed reading about his life, thanks to the verve of Emmanuel Carrere's exhilarating narration. You will probably also understand considerably more about the country that produced such a narcissistic and controversial figure, whom the author finds alluring and repellent in equal measure . . . Carrere has seized on Limonov's projection of himself as a literary hero (or anti-hero) straight out of the pages of Dostoyevsky, Celine, or Henry Miller, and run with it -- Rosamund Bartlett * Independent * This is an extraordinary, fantastic book about an extraordinary, fantastic life. It's billed as a novel, can be read as a novel and would be a good novel if Eduard Limonov had never existed. But he does . . . you will learn an awful lot about Russia now and in the days of the Soviets -- Allan Massie * Scotsman * Russia, they say, cannot be understood with the mind alone, and neither can her looniest son to date, Edichka Limonov. It also takes a heart, a spleen, a liver and this beautiful book by France's greatest writer, Emmanuel Carrere. Get ready for the last real adventure of the 20th Century! -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure To paraphrase Calvino, Emmanuel Carrerre's Limonov is a book about two things: Limonov, and everything else ... This virtuosically unclassifiable thing is somehow at once the liveliest of novels, the most illuminating of biographies, and the most consequential of philosophical inquiries - a loopy, hilarious, gut-punching quest after the shifting spirits of war, loyalty, discipline, pity, empathy, scorn, vitality, honor, ego, and, above all, the heroism of decency -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction There are few great writers in France today, and Emmanuel Carrere is one of them * Paris Review *