Peter Finn is National Security Editor for The Washington
Post and previously served as the Post’s bureau chief in
Moscow.
Petra Couvée is a writer and translator and teaches at Saint
Petersburg State University.
The Zhivago Affair is their first collaboration together.
“Beautifully crafted and scrupulously researched. . . . A kind of
intellectual thriller. . . . Well-paced and exciting.” —Alan Furst,
The Washington Post
“A fascinating book that is thoroughly researched, extraordinarily
accurate in its factual details, judicious in its judgments, and
destined to remain the definitive work on the subject for a very
long time to come.” —New York Review of Books
“Riveting, well-researched . . . Reads like a literary thriller.”
—The New Republic
“A rich and unanticipated story. . . . Finn and Couvée’s poignant
depiction of Pasternak is the book’s greatest strength.” —The Daily
Beast
“A work of deep historical research that reads a little like Le
Carré. . . . The authors show how both sides in the Cold War used
literary prestige as a weapon without resorting to cheap moral
equivalency.” —New York
“An informative, fascinating, and often moving account of personal
courage, espionage and propaganda, and the role of literature in
the political struggle for the hearts and minds of people.”
—Huffington Post
“Thrilling. . . . Deftly combining biography, cultural history and
literary tittle-tattle, [Finn and Couvée] have shone a light on a
shadowy operation. . . . Crushingly poignant.” —Newsday
“Fascinating. . . . The story of how Doctor Zhivago helped disrupt
the Soviet Union holds some intriguing implications for the present
and future of cultural conflict.” —The Atlantic
“A remarkable story and fully sourced book, the scholarship
peerless but never eclipsing one amazingly humanist story of a
towering figure.” —New York Journal of Books
“The authors persuasively argue that the ripples from the
publication of this single book affected not only the author, his
family and his friends, but also changed the balance of power in
the world during a critical period.” — Columbus Dispatch
“A galloping page-turner and a stark picture of a nation
ruled by terror and unreason, which reads like a sinister rewrite
of Alice in Wonderland.” —Sunday Times (London)
“Extraordinary. . . . There is much to think about in The Zhivago
Affair: the nature of genius; the terror that leads people to
betray friends; and, above all, the potency of fiction. . . . The
Zhivago Affair reveals the story of that triumph with vibrant
authenticity and calm analysis.” —The Independent on Sunday
(London)
“Excellent, superbly researched, and as exciting in its way as any
Cold War thriller. Pasternak himself emerges clearly and strongly
in all his complexity. This was the most important literary
controversy of the post-war world, and Finn and Couvée have
presented it with immense care and colour. The aftermath of the
affair still has resonance even now.” —John Simpson, BBC News
“Finn and Couvée deal objectively with the characters involved and
tell the story with exceptional vivacity.” —Literary Review
“Fascinating… [Finn and Couvée] manage to shed new light on both
the period and the characters involved.” —Financial Times
“An extraordinary, gripping tale of art and espionage, The Zhivago
Affair embodies the belief shared by its flamboyant cast of
geniuses, barbarians, lovers and eccentrics: books matter.” —A. D.
Miller, author of Snowdrops
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
