MixedThe Irish Times (IRE)It is a pity that we don’t learn more about Winceworth’s life outside of his workplace and the company of his fellow lexicographers ... The result is a certain sluggishness in some parts of the novel and a feeling that – disappointingly, in a work so concerned with vocabulary – not enough use is being made of the infinite possibilities offered by words, especially invented words.
Nino Haratischvili, Trans. by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin
RaveThe Irish Times (IRELAND)... a novel which is as unrelentingly critical of every aspect of the revolution and its outcome as a Richard Pipes history of the era. Indeed the author would seem to be nostalgic for the time of the czars and much of the early part of the novel is seen from the vantage point of those who had much to lose ... This is a long, rewarding novel, written in clear, unadorned prose which is distinctly pre-modernist, with a linear, unhurried narrative style, ably translated through a collaborative process. It all makes for an engrossing book. Haratischvili has created a fascinating cast (and it’s easy to imagine it as a television series) whose lives illuminate some of the greatest events of the 20th century.
