SOURCE: Riemer, Andrew. “The Russian Testaments of Andreï Makine.” Quadrant 44, no. 7-8 (July-August 2000): 74-7.

In the following essay, Riemer provides an overview Makine's major works and themes.

Late February is not yet springtime in Paris, but bookshops are usually in bloom by then with brightly coloured bands around sober paper covers to indicate new works by established and well-regarded writers. This year was no exception. Among the most prominent of that early flowering was Requiem pour l'Est (Requiem for the East), Andreï Makine's sixth novel in ten years, and the second since his reputation was established by the extraordinary success in 1995 of Le testament français, the winner of that year's prestigious Prix Goncourt. That rites-of-passage tale set in a remote corner of the USSR spoke eloquently to a large body of readers, especially those outside Russia, through its subtle lyricism and the glimpses it allowed of ordinary...