At the French Academy replenishment. Andrei Makin will legally regulate the French language

PARIS. Andrei Sergeevich Makin joined the ranks of the immortal French academics.

The election of Andrei Makine as a member of an honorable scientific institution can be called a sensation, although this is not the first academician with Russian roots. And Kessel, and d’Ankos, and Druon were born abroad. Only Leon Aslanovich Tarasov, who worked under the pseudonym Henri Trois, was born in Moscow and left the country as a child after the Bolshevik coup. With some stretch to this glorious cohort can be attributed to the hoaxer Romain Gary, who was born in Vilnius (Vilnius) on the territory of the Russian Empire. Makin turned out to be a defector at a conscious age. A thirty-year-old French teacher from Novgorod remained in his grandmother’s homeland, seeking political asylum.

Recognition came only after 7 years in France. And until that moment - the usual life of an emigrant with all its hardships, hunger, living in a crypt at Père Lachaise. Everything changed in 1995 after the release of Le Testament français (The French Testament). Having fallen into the hands of Isabelle Gallimard, the novel was released by her publisher Mercure de France in an amount of copies sufficient for a breakthrough. Bonuses in the form of Prix Médicis (Medici Prize), Goncourt Prize (Prix Goncourt) and the long-awaited citizenship immediately followed. The popularity of his novels in the West and especially in France is very high, it remains to conquer the historical homeland. The only “but” is the language barrier. Translated into Russian and published 20 years ago, only an autobiographical Testament dedicated to grandmother Charlotte.

Makin does not idealize or denigrate his former and present Motherland; he is honest and impartial. The more interest and trust in his work.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru