Andreï Makine’s novel
La terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme(2003) is the third part of his Franco-Russian trilogy. Like the preceding novels
Le testament français(1995) and
Requiem pour l’Est(2000), this novel deals with the themes of memory and narrative against the backdrop of Soviet history. The English translations of the trilogy are titled, respectively,
Dreams of My Russian Summers(1997),
Requiem for the East/Requiem for a Lost Empire(2001) and
The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme(2005).
The unnamed first-person narrator of La terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme grows up in a Soviet orphanage for children of “enemies of the People” in the 1960s. On weekend leaves, he visits Alexandra, an older Frenchwoman who has lived in the Soviet Union since 1921 and knew his deceased
2071 words
Citation: Hansen, Julie. "La terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32151, accessed 22 November 2024.]