Stalin's Nose: Across the Face of Europe [Paperback]

Rory MacLean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2008

This surreal and darkly comic tale is based on the author's journey from Berlin to Moscow, through Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania, only weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘A minor masterpiece of comic surrealism.’ –The Times

"Crazy, charming, a delight." --John le Carré

"Eccentric, amusing and chilling."--The Economist

"The best book I’ve read for a long time." --John Wells

"As an allegory it is powerful and frequently moving. As a tale it is tremendous fun. It is also a thing of beauty.'" --Jan Morris

"The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since In Patagonia. A park, sardonic and brilliant book which grows in stature with every page." --William Dalrymple

"The wittiest, most surreal travel writing of recent years." --Frank Delaney

"A truly wonderful writer who has delved into the human condition around the world for two decades to create a canon of work that is invigorating, heartbreaking, hilarious, slyly seditious and ultimately illuminating." --Toronto Sun

"There is pathos—and adventure—in spades…Stalin’s Nose is an essential companion for anyone travelling to a part of the world still recovering from the horrors of the giant confidence trick that was communism." --Financial Times

"It is a painful book of bitter old ages, or lives which have had their meanings repeatedly declared void. It is very hard and very good." --Guardian

"MacLean is…the only major travel writer of his generation who is still exclusively and self-consciously a literary writer about travel.  He is also one of the best around." --William Dalrymple, Prospect

About the Author

Rory Maclean was born and educated in Canada. His book include best-sellers Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon, He has won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work prize and an Arts Council Writers' Award, was twice shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Prize and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. Born and educated in Canada, he lives with his family in Dorset.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks; Reprint edition (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845116232
• ISBN-13: 978-1845116231
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,442,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rory MacLean's eight books, including UK best-sellers 'Stalin's Nose' and 'Under the Dragon', have challenged and invigorated travel writing, and ­ according to the late John Fowles ­ are among works that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. During his research journeys, MacLean walked through the newly-opened Berlin Wall, met Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon and interviewed Pashtun elders at the Kacha Garhi refugee camp after the destruction of the World Trade Center.

His books have won awards from the Canada Council and the Arts Council of England, were shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Prize and nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an active member of English PEN. He has also written and presented over 50 programmes for BBC radio and worked on movies with David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. Born in Canada, long resident in the UK, he now lives in Berlin.