The People’s Train
On sale
27th September 2012
Price: £9.99
Artem Samsurov, a protégé of Lenin, makes an extraordinary escape from Tsarist Russia to reach sanctuary in Australia, but soon discovers that repression and injustice exist there too. Though distracted by an infatuation with a beautiful female lawyer, he throws himself back into the socialist cause, only to be imprisoned, then accused of murdering an informer. But he never loses his belief that the revolution will come – and in 1917, he returns to Russia alongside an Australian journalist to fight for it.
Based on a true story, Keneally’s enthralling novel takes us to the heart of the Russian Revolution through the dramatic exploits of one inspiring man. Once again, he illuminates a seismic period of history from an intimate, unusual perspective as he captures the ideals and passions behind a movement that changed the world.
Based on a true story, Keneally’s enthralling novel takes us to the heart of the Russian Revolution through the dramatic exploits of one inspiring man. Once again, he illuminates a seismic period of history from an intimate, unusual perspective as he captures the ideals and passions behind a movement that changed the world.
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Reviews
Thomas Keneally is one of the historical novel's most expert practitioners, and his new book sees him back on the form that produced Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally's impersonation of translated prose, artfully achieved, is studded with strange poeticisms . . . a sturdy achievement, expertly constructed and paced . . . One of its major pleasures is to be found in the way in which the author has braided together the factual and the invented.
Uncommonly good
Effortlessly captures the mindset of a young man convinced that the day is coming with the workers will rise . . . This impassioned idealism stands starkly at odds with our own knowledge of where the revolution lead - a contrast that lends the novel a queasy power.