An elegant, emotional self-examination, full of bleak but truthful insights about the lies and compromises of love
The Times
This book is very much at the crossroads of writing-as-therapy and the sort of fact-fiction blurring that fans of WG Sebald and Geoff Dyer will appreciate
Independent
Carrère brings the whole to sharp focus with a few jarring truths and a moment of great beauty. You leave its last pages with a deep appreciation for life
Washington Post
Emmanuel Carrère has written a work of infinite sorrow, infernal jealousy, and violent passion. <i>My Life as a Russian Novel</i> dazzles
Le Monde
Brims with ideas and incidents... Gripping and fascinating, an intimate portrait of a complicated man's inner life and his struggles to find some kind of happiness and fulfilment
Guardian
A captivating memoir that reads like a literary erotic-suspense novel
Boston Globe
As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on your when you attempt to pull away
- Junot Díaz,
He's the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty
Observer
Excoriating and forcefully intelligent
- Nat Segnit, Times Literary Supplement