SOURCE: Brookner, Anita. “Violence with Decorum.” Spectator 283, no. 8919 (17 July 1999): 30-1.

In the following review, Brookner concludes that Makine has further refined his storytelling abilities in The Crime of Olga Arbyelina.

The Crime of Olga Arbyelina is the fifth novel written by the Russian exile Andrei Makine, best known to the reading public for Le testament français, which won both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis in 1996. What was notable about Le testament français was that it was written in a lyrical and fairly singular French, not Makine's first language, and that it had an equal success in England when a translation was published in 1997.

Le testament français tells the story of a young Russian growing up far from sophisticated centres of excellence (Makine was in fact born in Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia). Persuaded by his grandmother of the superiority of all things French, the...