Andreï Yaroslavovich Makine (; born 10 September 1957) is a French novelist. He also publishes under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Gabriel Osmonde. Makine's novels include '' Dreams of My Russian Summers'' (1995) which won two top French awards, the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

and the

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis () is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and .

. He was elected to seat 5 of the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

on 3 March 2016, succeeding Assia Djebar.

Biography

Andreï Makine was born in

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on 10 September 1957 and grew up in the city of

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

about 700 kilometres (435 mi) south-east of Moscow. As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother, he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian. In 1987, he went to France as a member of a teacher's exchange program and decided to stay. He was granted

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

and was determined to make a living as a writer in French. However, Makine had to present his first manuscripts as translations from Russian to overcome publishers' skepticism that a newly arrived exile could write so fluently in a second language."Torn Between Two Languages"
Victor Brombert, New York Times, August 17, 1997 After disappointing reactions to his first two novels, it took eight months to find a publisher for his fourth, ''Dreams of My Russian Summers''. Finally published in 1995 in France as ''Le testament français'', the novel became the first in history to win both the

and the

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis () is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and .

plus the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. In 2001 Makine began secretively publishing as "Gabriel Osmonde", a total of four novels over ten years, the last appearing in 2011. It was considered a mystery among France's literary subculture; many speculated about who Osmonde might be until, in 2011, a scholar noticed Osmonde's book ''20,000 femmes dans la vie d'un homme'' seemed to have been inspired by Makine's ''Dreams of My Russian Summers.'' Makine confirmed that he was Osmonde. Explaining why he used a

, he said, "I wanted to create someone who lived far from the hurly-burly of the world".

Translations

All English translations of Makine's novels are by Geoffrey Strachan. ''Le testament français'' was published in English as '' Dreams of My Russian Summers'' in the United States, and under its original French title in the United Kingdom. It has also been translated into Russian by Yuliana Yahnina and Natalya Shakhovskaya, and it was first published in Russian in 1996 in the 12th issue of ''Foreign Literature'' (''Иностранная литература'') literary magazine.

Bibliography

* ''La Fille d'un héros de l'Union soviétique'', 1990, Robert Laffont (''A Hero's Daughter'', 1996 ) * ''Confession d'un porte-drapeau déchu'', 1992, Belfond (''Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer'', 1996 ) * ', 1994, Editions du Félin (''Once Upon the River Love'', 1996 ) * '' Le Testament français'', 1995, Mercure de France (''Dreams of My Russian Summers'', 1997 ; also published in English as ''Le Testament Francais'') * ''Le Crime d'Olga Arbelina'', 1998, Mercure de France (''Crime of Olga Arbyelina'', 2000 ) * '' Requiem pour l'Est'', 2000, Mercure de France (''Requiem for a Lost Empire'', 2001 ) * '' La Musique d'une vie'', 2001, Éditions du Seuil (''A Life's Music'', 2004 ; also published as ''Music of a Life'') * ''La Terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme'', 2003, Mercure de France (''The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme'', 2005 ) * '' La Femme qui attendait'', 2004, Éditions du Seuil (''The Woman Who Waited'', 2006 ) * ''L'Amour humain'', 2006, Éditions du Seuil (''Human Love'', 2008 ) * ''Le Monde selon Gabriel'', 2007, Éditions du Rocher * '' La Vie d'un homme inconnu'', 2009, Éditions du Seuil (''The Life of an Unknown Man'', 2010 ) * ''Cette France qu'on oublie d'aimer'', 2010, Points * ''Le Livre des brèves amours éternelles'', 2011, Éditions du Seuil (''Brief Loves That Live Forever'', 2013 ) * ''Une Femme Aimée'', 2013, Éditions du Seuil (''A woman loved'', 2015) * ''Le Pays du lieutenant Schreiber'', 2014 * '' L'archipel d'une autre vie'', 2016 (''The Archipelago of Another Life'', 2021) * ', 2019 * '' L'Ami arménien'', 2021, Éditions Grasset (''My Armenian Friend'', 2023 ) * ''L'Ancien calendrier d'un amour'', 2023, Éditions Grasset As Gabriel Osmonde * ''Le Voyage d'une femme qui n'avait plus peur de vieillir'', Albin Michel, 2001 * ''Les 20 000 Femmes de la vie d'un homme'', Albin Michel, 2004 * ''L'Œuvre de l'amour'', Pygmalion, 2006 * ''Alternaissance'', Pygmalion, 2011

References

External links

"A writer's life: Andreï Makine"
Philip Delves Broughton, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 28 March 2004

Natasha Fairweather, ''The Independent'', 31 January 1999
"Madame Bovary C’est Moi: An Interview With Andreï Makine"
Gerry Feehily, ''3:AM Magazine'', 1 September 2008 French language links * Site du collectif de chercheurs sur l'œuvre d'Andreï Makin
Autour de l'œuvre d'Andreï Makine
*
Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)
* ''Le Monde selon Gabriel'' voir le site:
''Le Monde selon Gabriel''

Murielle Lucie Clément
author of a PhD Thesis ''Andreï Makine. Présence de l'absence: une poétique de l'art (photographie, cinéma, musique)'' and many articles on this author. {{DEFAULTSORT:Makine, Andrei 1957 births Living people People from Penza French people of Russian descent Soviet emigrants to France 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists French male novelists Prix Goncourt winners Prix Médicis winners Prix Goncourt des lycéens winners Russian male novelists Members of the Académie Française 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French male writers Naturalized citizens of France