Once upon the River Love

by Andrei Makine

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In this brilliant, affecting novel, acclaimed Russian novelist Andrei Makine takes readers to the vast, remote forests of eastern Siberia to tell the story of Alyosha, Utkin, and Samurai, three boys on the verge of manhood. Isolated by history as well as geography, with only the passing lights of the Transsiberian train to assure them of an outside world, the three friends yearn for experiences their small village cannot provide. But after trekking by snowshoe to a cinema in the neighboring city, their whole world is changed forever as they watch the gorgeous spectacle of a motion picture starring the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and a cast of beautiful women. Written from the perspective of twenty years later, Once Upon the River Love follows the destinies of these three young idealists up to the present day, to the boardwalks of Brighton Beach and the jungles of Central America. Once Upon the River Love is a beautifully rendered novel that demonstrates Andrei Makine's remarkable ability to recreate the past with such precision that the present becomes all the more poignant.
  • ISBN10 0140283625
  • ISBN13 9780140283624
  • Publish Date 26 August 1999 (first published 1 January 1998)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 19 August 2009
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
  • Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
  • Pages 224
  • Language English