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Published Mar 2008
400 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Paperback Original.
Inspired by the author's own family history, Pravda is a haunting chronicle of suspicion and loss, love and loyalty, and the destructive legacy of deceit.
Thirty-two-year-old Gabriel Clarke arrives in St. Petersburg from London to find his mother dead in her apartment. Reeling from grief, Gabriel and his twin, Isabella, bury their mother and struggle to make sense of their loss. Unknown to either, their mother had long ago abandoned a son, Arkady, now an utterly amoral Russian predator determined to claim his birthright. Aided by an ex-seminarian and heroin addict whose addiction is destroying him, Arkady tracks down the twins and uncovers the shocking secrets hidden from them their entire lives.
"Longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, and with good reason: well written, vigorously plotted and perceptive about human nature." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Though Docx's prose veers out of control at times - it is both well written and well overwritten - he manages to elevate this most dysfunctional family to the level of international intrigue. Caustic, hip, and highly recommended." - Library Journal.
"Though Docx's prose can get dangerously overheated ("Give me the sincerity of nakedness and the honesty of desire, O God, and deliver me from the turgid bourgeoisie and all their favorite phrases"), the crushing atmosphere will draw in fans of dark Euro-fiction." - Publishers Weekly.
"Readers in search of gleamingly polished novels should look elsewhere; but for those who want a gripping read that will sometimes make them feel quarrelsome but far more often engage, delight and engross them, Self Help will do nicely." - The Guardian.
"As Docx takes us on a tour of the principal cities of the globe, he devotes himself more to the nuances of character and atmosphere – delivered in exuberantly descriptive flurries – than to the plot. So, this smartly written novel, again, like the botvinya, requires two spoons and a fork to consume, but anyone patient enough will find it a gratifying nosh-up." - The Times.
"Docx is clearly inspired by Mother Russia. His descriptions of St Petersburg – the rapaciousness of its nightclubs, the drawbacks of doing cold turkey in the vicinity of Grisha the psychopath – have a vitality that's sometimes lacking elsewhere: Isabella doesn't really develop and the indulgent inanities of young media types in London seem to bore the author. But for the most part this novel, longlisted for the Man Booker prize, is beautifully balanced." - The Independent.
"Docx's writing can be engrossing - the heroin addiction of Arkady's friend Henry, perhaps the only altruist in the cast, is movingly described. But just as often it is irritatingly overwrought: a plane 'score[s] on across the darkening sky like a misshapen crucifix tearing a wound across the heavens'." - The Telegraph.
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in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Edward Docx was born in 1972 and lives in London. He is the author of The Calligrapher, which was named a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year and widely translated; and Self Help, a contender for the 2007 Booker Prize.
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