The People’s Act Of Love
- 20 Jun 2019
- 9781786894014
- £9.99
- 416 pp
- 129×198mm
- 20 Nov 2008
- 9781847673756
- £7.99
- 416 pp
In a few words
The international bestseller; longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Ondaatje Prize
In a few words
The international bestseller; longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Ondaatje Prize
A quite extraordinary novel . . . the language is so fresh and crisp and sparkling. And what a narrative! What a story!
Philip Pullman
Magnificent and beautifully written . . . such a truly Russian novel, with its huge horizons, it is an exceptional event in English literature
Antony Beevor
A quite extraordinary novel
Philip Pullman
Vivid, brutal and exhilarating
More about
the book
1919, Siberia.
Deep in the unforgiving landscape a town lies under military rule, awaiting the remorseless assault of Bolsheviks along the Trans-Siberian railway. One night a stranger, Samarin, appears from the woods with a tale of escape from an Arctic prison, insisting a cannibal is on his trail. Only Anna, a beautiful young widow, trusts his story. When a local shaman is found dead, suspicion and terror engulf the isolated community, which harbours a secret of its own . . .
More about
the book
1919, Siberia . . .
Deep in the unforgiving landscape a town lies under military rule, awaiting the remorseless assault of Bolsheviks along the Trans-Siberian railway. One night a stranger, Samarin, appears from the woods with a tale of escape from an Arctic prison, insisting a cannibal is on his trail. Only Anna, a beautiful young widow, trusts his story. When a local shaman is found dead suspicion and terror engulf the isolated community, which harbours a secret of its own . . .
Spellbinding. Though set in the past, this feels like the most contemporary fiction you'll ever read . . . A truly great read
Irvine Welsh
GuardianHas the strangeness and clarity of a dream. This is historical fiction that transcends the genre – as intense as a thriller, imagined on an epic scale
The best and most original book that I have read for years
Louis De BerniÈres
A strikingly unusual and ambitious novel . . . Violence and sensuality commingle in a tense, complex thriller with the sweep and flavour of Russia
The best and most original book that I have read for years
Louis De Bernières
James Meek's immense and consistently impressive narrative incorporates the bizarre-but-true extremes of post-revolutionary Russia. . . Meek keeps the sensational elements at the service of a profound, propulsive plot, while maintaining a pleasingly sardonic edge throughout. . . All this plus an unflinching castration scene which presents a truly eye-watering account of severe pain in the Urals.
I was gripped by James Meek's Siberian western The People's Act of Love... With admirable confidence Meek combines big country and big characters to create a sort of intellectual epic, which I enjoyed for its revelation of a fascinating corner of 20th-century history.
Michael Palin
[It] has the strangeness and clarity of a dream. This is historical fiction that transcends the genre - as intense as a thriller, imagined on an epic scale.
James Meek
View profileJames Meek is the author of six novels including The People’s Act of Love which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won both the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Award. It has been published in more than thirty countries. Meek’s latest novel The Heart Broke In was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and he has also written two collections of short stories and a book of non-fiction, Private Island, which won the 2015 Orwell Prize. He is a Contributing Editor to the London Review of Books and writes regularly for the Guardian and New York Times. He lives in London.
James Meek
View profileJames Meek was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee. His novel The People’s Act of Love won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the SAC Book of the Year Award, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been published in more than thirty countries. His latest novel The Heart Broke In was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award 2012 and his novel We Are Now Beginning our Descent won the Prince Maurice Prize. He is the author of two other novels, a book of non-fiction and two collections of short stories. His journalism has won a number of British and international awards. He lives in London.
