Le défi d'Olga: roman

by Henri Troyat

Olga Kourganova, veuve de quatre-vingts ans, vit à Paris, enfermée dans le souvenir factice de la Russie des tsars, qu'elle a quittée encore enfant. Murée dans sa fermeté patriotique et dans sa nostalgie, elle est aujourd'hui affublée d'un fils quinquagénaire, mais infantile, subitement lâché, quand commence le roman, par ses deux amours : Caroline, dont il a divorcé plusieurs années auparavant, et Viviane, sa maîtresse. Les deux femmes ont en effet noué une amitié suspecte autant qu'inattendue, et viennent de décider de s'installer ensemble, contraignant Boris à retourner ronronner dans le giron maternel. Olga se sent renaître : ravie de remettre la main sur son "vieux rejeton", elle se voit de surcroît offrir par un traducteur russe, aux allures pittoresques, la publication en français de ses souvenirs de pensionnat. D'abord méfiante, elle finira par accepter cette occasion de connaître une gloire tardive, et commencera sa carrière d'écrivain par une prestation magistrale sur le plateau de l'émission littéraire Paragraphes... À partir de ce moment, sa gratitude envers la France, qui l'a adoptée et reconnue, contrebalancera chez elle l'appel d'un passé illusoire. La nécessité de renouveler son inspiration et le démantèlement de l'URSS communiste décideront-ils Olga à faire le voyage vers le pays natal ?

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Troyat was a French author, biographer, historian and novelist.

Troyat was born Levon Aslan Torossian in Moscow to parents of Armenian descent. His family fled Russia in anticipation of the revolution. After a long exodus taking them to the Caucasus on to Crimea and later by sea to Constantinople and then Venice, the family finally settled in Paris in 1920, where young Troyat was schooled and later earned a law degree. The stirring and tragic events of this flight across half of Europe are vividly recounted by Troyat in 'Tant que la terre durera'.

Troyat received his first literary award, Le prix du roman populaire, at the age of twenty-four, and by twenty-seven, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt.

Troyat published more than 100 books, novels and biographies, among them those of Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Rasputin, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy.

Troyat's best-known work is La neige en deuil, which was adapted as an English-language film in 1956 under the title The Mountain.

He was elected as a member of the Académie française in 1959. At the time of his death, Troyat was the longest serving member of the Academy.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really superb novel about identity, love and belonging. Olga is an octogenarian widow who fled with her parents from Russia to France during the Russia Revolution when she was a young girl. She finds fame in her twilight years when she is persuaded to publish in French her childhood reminiscences just at the time when the iron curtain is falling in the post Gorbachev era. She struggles to reconcile her sense of identity with the new reality of post-Soviet Russia. A lovely, charming book, beautifully written.