Title: The Swallow Before the Storm - Robert Littell - book
Summary :
Spring 1934.
In a Russia subjected to Stalinist terror, the poet Osip Mandelstam, at the risk of his freedom, his art and even his life, composes a violent indictment against the master of the Kremlin, in the form of an epigram which circulates clandestinely until Stalin learns of its existence.
Through the alternating voices of the poet and those close to him - his wife Nadezhda, his close friend the poet Anna Akhmatova and the writer Boris Pasternak, future author of Doctor Zhivago - The Swallow Before the Storm recounts the painful journey of Mandelstam, who suffered arrest, torture and exile for having dared to speak his truth.
Robert Littell, often considered one of the contemporary masters of the spy novel, reveals in this poetic book another side of his immense talent.
Inspired by the tragic destiny of the great Russian poet, with his unique art of interweaving fiction and history, he offers us a meditation of rare power on the artist facing power. Through the story of the strange fascination between the poet and the dictator, this novel pays homage to Mandelstam's incredible act of defiance and explores the full complexity of the writer's commitment.
