The Marksman

SERGE IOURIENEN "THE MARKSMAN". A NOVEL. C'est un grand livre. — Le Figaro (Paris) The plot… is sturdy and simple… The novel investigates this "infernal metaphysics of the Border." …By the end, in a series of flashbacks from the agent's childhood, we get a gripping account of what life on the border really means… Skillfully rendered here into English, the novel constitutes a parody of salvation scenarios current in East and West. Neither side, it is clear, can save or destroy the other. And wedged in between is that no man's land, an increasingly common place for gifted Russian writers to call their home. — The New York Times Book Review Dostoyevsky-ridden and Hemingway-haunted, the novel seems suspended between two cultures, two literatures… A strong writer — Publishers Weekly The narrative is undoubtedly about love. — Novoye Russkoe Slovo (New York)