Dostoevsky in Love - by Alex Christofi (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>A highly original and immersive new biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, published to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>'A daring and mesmerizing twist on the art of biography' </b><i>- </i>Douglas Smith, author of <i>Rasputin: The Biography</i> <p/><b>'Anyone who loves [Dostoevsky's] novels will be fascinated by this book</b>' <b><i>-</i></b> Sue Prideaux, author of <i>I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche</i> <p/>Dostoevsky's life was marked by brilliance and brutality. Sentenced to death as a young revolutionary, he survived mock execution and Siberian exile to live through a time of seismic change in Russia, eventually being accepted into the Tsar's inner circle. He had three great love affairs, each overshadowed by debilitating epilepsy and addiction to gambling. Somehow, amidst all this, he found time to write short stories, journalism and novels such as <i>Crime and Punishment</i>, <i>The Idiot</i> and <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i>, works now recognised as among the finest ever written. <p/>In <i>Dostoevsky in Love </i>Alex Christofi weaves carefully chosen excerpts of the author's work with the historical context to form an illuminating and often surprising whole. The result is a novelistic life that immerses the reader in a grand vista of Dostoevsky's world: from the Siberian prison camp to the gambling halls of Europe; from the dank prison cells of the Tsar's fortress to the refined salons of St Petersburg. Along the way, Christofi relates the stories of the three women whose lives were so deeply intertwined with Dostoevsky's: the consumptive widow Maria; the impetuous Polina who had visions of assassinating the Tsar; and the faithful stenographer Anna, who did so much to secure his literary legacy. <p/>Reading between the lines of his fiction, Christofi reconstructs the memoir Dostoevsky might have written had life - and literary stardom - not intervened. He gives us a new portrait of the artist as never before seen: a shy but devoted lover, an empathetic friend of the people, a loyal brother and friend, and a writer able to penetrate to the very depths of the human soul.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>"<b>A wonderfully readable account of one of the great, and difficult, figures in world literature</b>, <i>Dostoevsky in Love</i> brings the subject brilliantly to life. <b>Anyone who loves his novels will be fascinated by this book</b>." - <i>Sue Prideaux, author of I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche</i> <p/>"Christofi immerses us in the forcefield of Dostoevsky's thought ... <b>Beautifully crafted and realised, but it is the great love that Christofi feels for his subject that makes this such a moving book."</b> - <i>Frances Wilson, Guardian</i> <p/>"Whether you know everything or nothing about Dostoevsky, whether you love or hate him (and he was extremely annoying), this is <b>the perfect modern biography. A celebration of human complexity which fuses surprising new information about the life of the writer with a passionate love for his books. Alex Christofi has created the most charismatic and engaging portrait of a tortured, brilliant man</b>. <i>Dostoevsky In Love</i> is as entertaining as it is insightful." - <i>Viv Groskop, author of The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature</i> <p/>"<b>A wonderfully written life of Dostoevsky</b>, <b>in which the boundaries that conventionally separate biography and autobiography are dissolved to revelatory effect."</b> - <i>Tom Holland</i> <p/>"Combining equal parts fact and fiction with literary flair, Alex Christofi has crafted in <i>Dostoevsky in Love</i> <b>a stunning, genre-bending work certain to captivate fans of Dostoevsky and the Russian classics. A daring and mesmerizing twist on the art of biography</b>." - <i>Douglas Smith, author of Rasputin: The Biography</i> <p/>"<b>Alex Christofi has created a dazzling hybrid, a narrative account of Dostoevsky's life that blends the known facts with his letters and the most autobiographical elements of his fiction</b>. The effect is like that of colourised film footage: the Dostoevsky that shambles through these pages possesses an immediacy and a realness that's almost uncanny." - <i>Chris Power, novelist and author of Mothers</i> <p/>"A fierce account of Dostoevsky's inner and outer life ... <b>Christofi's rapidly unrolling tapestry helps to capture the madcap, tumbling and ferocious quality of Dostoevsky's style"</b> - <i>Financial Times</i> <p/>"<b>Innovative biography</b> ... The sociopolitical ferment of Russia bubble[s] up through Mr Christofi's pages" - <i>Wall Street Journal</i> <p/>"<b>Fluently readable and warmly entertaining"</b> - <i>Daily Telegraph</i> <p/>"<b>[A] compelling portrait of the writer's inner world</b> ... Christofi reminds us how much Dostoevsky's own failings and endless remorse informed his work and shaped his characters. <b>My only caveat is that this lively account is too short</b>." - <i>New Humanist</i> <p/>"An immersive and visceral journey through the life of the revolutionary author ... <b>[<i>Dostoevsky in Love</i>] feels like a cinematic thriller with one of those protagonists that you want to grasp by the shoulders and shake."</b> - <i>Irish Times</i> <p/>"An <b>utterly charming, lively and original </b>work that reads like a novel itself." - <i>Globe and Mail</i> <p/>"Christofi succeeds in revealing Dostoyevsky's personality in ways no ordinary biographical treatment could." - <i>Publishers Weekly</i> <p/>"In this probing life study, Christofi illuminates the formative power of the great novelist's passionate love ... Literary scholarship laudably synthesizing insightful analysis with emotional empathy." - <i>Booklist, starred review</i> <p/>"Christofi is well-equipped for this biography ... The narrative is both an illuminating literary biography and an evocative snapshot of the context in which the great writer created his enduring work. Dostoevsky fans are certain to find this book insightful and captivating." - <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> <p/>"Christofi pieces together all of these elements of Dostoevsky's dramatic life with great skill and clarity ... If you have read only smaller portions of Dostoevsky, Christofi's account will send you off to look for more. And, if you have never read this giant of Russian and World Literature, Dostoevsky in Love will send you off to start a great literary experience with a master of the written word." - <i>The New York Journal of Books</i> <p/>"[A] uniquely wonderful biography/faux autobiography ... unique because I have never encountered a book quite like it ... By using many of Dostoevsky's own words--either from his fiction, letters, or other writings--to construct the narrative, a reader feels like he is hearing Dostoevsky's own voice tell his life's story." - <i>The Kirk Center</i></p><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><p><b>Alex Christofi</b> is Editorial Director at Transworld Publishers and the author of the novels <i>Let Us Be True</i> and <i>Glass</i>, winner of the Betty Trask Prize for fiction. He has written for numerous publications including the <i>Guardian</i> and <i>The White Review</i>. <i>Dostoevsky in Love</i> is his first work of non-fiction. <p/> alexchristofi.com / @alex_christofi</p>
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