Russian novelist who is compared to Stendhal, Tolstoy and Proust

Nobel contender: Author Andreï Makine

Tim Martin

So classical in form and so precise in execution are Andreï Makine's novels of Russia that one half expects their author to be a kind of glittering book-world fossil, as old as the 20th century, wizened from a lifetime of unpacking the tragic ironies of communism in gorgeously intricate prose miniatures.

Makine has been compared to Stendhal, Tolstoy and Proust; our best historians of the Soviet era queue up to pronounce him one of the finest living writers on the period; and he is regularly tipped to be among the contenders for the next Nobel in literature.