Kolkhoz

Kolkhoz is poignant and deeply novelistic, abounding in wonderful anecdotes . . . It is Carrère’s best, alongside Limonov

Times Literary Supplement

An epic achievement and an honest, heartfelt account

Guardian

What distinguishes this family chronicle from other forms of historical writing is Carrère’s ability to inhabit the inner worlds of the people he writes about . . . This is partly due to the highly intimate nature of his source material . . . but it is also due to the gift of a writer who approaches the world in a determinedly observant and attentive fashion

Spectator

Carrère marries introspection with a keen interest in the world. It makes for a captivating book, the sort that makes you want to share passages aloud with anyone who cares to listen

Financial Times

Carrère's clever sequencing and control of tone somehow make [Kolkhoz] seem like an act of filial piety . . . His strange mixture of intellectual playfulness and emotional directness is on full display. There may not be an easy label for what he does, but there's no question that he's very good at it

New Statesman

A conflicted family history . . . Virtuosically, infuriatingly honest . . . Strikingly nuanced . . . These historical anecdotes have a scope that brings to mind the great Russian epics. He has masterly evoked an empire just as powerful and just as slippery: the idea of Russia

New Yorker

Carrère is maybe the only writer I can imagine who could make an unlikely book like this work

New York Times Book Review