Monsieur Ka

Telling the story of two lonely people, brought together by chance in a foreign land, Monsieur Ka is a story of survival, identity and the notion of 'foreignness'. A moving, atmopsheric novel which incorporates ideas of language and mutual understanding, questioning the extent to which any of us truly belong anywhere.

Without quite realising that I would do it until it happened, I raised myself on my toes and kissed his frozen cheek. In Paris, it would have been an unremarkable gesture. In Alexandria, an invitation. I still had no idea about London.

The London winter of 1947. As cold as St Petersburg during the Revolution. The Karenins keep their vodka under the layers of snow in their suburban garden, in bottles entombed like their Russian past. But when a young Frenchwoman arrives to work as a companion to the aged 'Monsieur Ka' he begins to tell his story...

Albertine is the wife of a British army officer who is often abroad on covert government business. Lonely, yet eager to work, she begins to write Monsieur Ka's life story as a secret gift to him, and even learns his mother tongue.

To her ear it is like 'the sound of falling snow'. For he is Karenin, the count whose mother was the inspiration for Anna Karenina, and his life is a story at once familiar and strange.

As she is drawn into Ka's dramatic past, her own life is shaken to its foundations. For in this family of former princes, there are present temptations which could profoundly affect her future.

Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784741181
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 428 g
Dimensions: 222 x 144 x 28 mm