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“Beautifully crafted and scrupulously
researched…Finn and Couvée have taken a complex and difficult history with
many moving parts and turned it into a kind of intellectual thriller. They have
to control a lot of information, yet they keep the book well paced and often
exciting. The Zhivago Affair is a
prime example of hard work and fidelity to a good story.”
— Washington Post
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“Fascinating…Told in its entirety, the
story of how Doctor Zhivago helped
disrupt the Soviet Union holds some intriguing implications for the present and
future of cultural conflict.”
— Atlantic
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“A work of deep historical research that
reads a little like le Carré…and it bears its multiple burdens lightly: a
sideways biography of Pasternak; a psychological history of Soviet Russia; a
powerful argument for the book as literature; an entry into the too-small canon
on the CIA’s role in shaping culture. In new reporting on the Agency’s
distribution of the book behind enemy lines, the authors show how both sides in
the Cold War used literary prestige as a weapon without resorting to cheap
moral equivalency.”
— New York magazine
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“Thrilling…Deftly combining biography,
cultural history and literary tittle-tattle, [Finn and Couvée] have shone a
light on a shadowy operation…Crushingly poignant.”
— Newsday
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"[This] riveting, well-researched book reads
like a literary thriller…a fascinating essay on mid-century
politics…illuminating, humane.”
— New Republic
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“It is quite simply a remarkable story and fully
sourced book, the scholarship peerless but never eclipsing one amazingly
humanist story of a towering figure of twentieth century Russian literature.”
— New York Journal of Books
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“A rich and unanticipated story…[The
authors] demonstrate a sophisticated appreciation for an artistic quest that
was haunted by dread, persecution, and loss. They also share an avid eye for
detail…Finn and Couvée’s poignant depiction of Pasternak is the book’s
greatest strength.”
— Daily Beast
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“A riveting account…[Finn and Couvéee] have
drawn not only on archival documents and interviews with surviving actors in
the international drama but also on newly declassified files of the Soviet,
American, and Dutch intelligence services.”
— Bookforum
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“This audiobook proves yet again that fact can be as fascinating as
fiction, particularly when Simon Vance is the narrator…Vance’s adept use of accent and inflection complement the book, which
is as exciting as a spy novel. Calling this a page-turner doesn’t do justice,
however, to Vance’s elegant and memorable performance. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
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“In brisk and thrilling fashion…the authors use
rich archival research, including previously classified CIA files, to depict
the oppressive political conditions that gave rise to Pasternak’s masterpiece….It’s a story
expertly told by Finn and Couvée, who unsparingly present the role played by
the Kremlin in persecuting Pasternak and his loved ones, as well as the role of
the CIA in using his masterpiece in a game of ideological warfare—overall, a
triumphant reminder that truth is sometimes gloriously stranger than fiction.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“A fast-paced political thriller about a book that terrified a nation.”
— Kirkus Reviews