The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme

An astounding novel that penetrates the 20th-century experience, from one of Europe's most feted authors. In present-day France a Russian writer recalls his harsh childhood at a Stalingrad orphanage in the 1960s and the old Frenchwoman, a family friend, whose tales fed his dreams of a better world. One story in particular has stayed with him: that of her brief, passionate affair, during World War II, with the French fighter pilot Jacques Dorme, who subsequently died in a plane crash in the Siberian mountains. So the narrator decides to retrace Jacques Dorme's steps, beginning a journey which leads him not only to revisit the land of his birth but also to see his adopted homeland in an unflattering new light. A profound and moving novel about the dangers of ideology and of war, delivered with humour, sensuousness and great lyricism.

The cheapest new copy of The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme is €10.00 at Casa del Libro. Prices checked 8 Nov 2026

More by Andreï Makine

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