Kolia

by Perrine Leblanc, Perrine Leblanc

Set against the backdrop of Stalinism and then the collapse of the USSR, Kolia is a luminous and unforgettable story about a boy born in a Siberian Gulag and his eventual freedom and life as a clown in the Moscow circus in the 1960s.

Kolia’s life begins in a labour camp in eastern Siberia in 1937. Iosif, a prisoner originally from Western Europe, teaches him the basic knowledge for survival in the harsh environment of the Gulag, but he also teaches him calculus, Russian, and French, before disappearing like most people who have lived in the open-air prison.

After Stalin’s death, Kolia is released and he’s thrown into Soviet society. He joins a circus in Moscow, where he finds the comfort of a family and is successful until the collapse of the USSR. But the memory of Josef and the Gulag haunt him all his life.

Kolia is a moving and deeply human novel that beautifully illustrates the resilience of the human spirit.

Genres: Canada

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2011

About the author

Her debut novel L'homme blanc, published in 2010, won the 2010 Grand prix du livre de Montréal,[2] the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2011 Governor General's Awards,[3] and the 2011 edition of Le Combat des livres.

Leblanc studied at the Université Laval and the Université de Montréal, and worked as an editor with Éditions Leméac in Montreal before publishing L'homme blanc.[2] Following the novel's commercial and award success, a revised edition was published in France in 2011 under the title Kolia.

Her second novel, Malabourg, was published in 2014. Malabourg was translated into English with the title "The Lake".

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Russia and spanning almost 60 years from 1937 to the mid-nineties, it follows Kolia, an orphan born in Russia’s Siberian camps who grows up in the harshness of the Gulag. Following the amnesty after Stalin's death, his life begins anew in Moscow, where, in a series of colorful events, fortuitous meetings, adventures and misadventures, the cruelty and continued indifference of the world is exposed.

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for French Fiction (as "L'homme blanc").

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this novel won a lot of prizes simply because it deals with the complex legacy of the Soviet period and life in the gulag. That being said, some people might have found the spare prose to be effective, but I felt the novel really paled in comparison to other books that have treated similar subject matter. Perhaps I simply had high expectations or maybe I should have read it in French (I borrowed the book without even realizing that it was translated), but it just wasn't for me. Something about the story and the writing just didn't ring true unfortunately.

[Darren Donahue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, comfortable read with a nice story arch of Kolia's life. While concise, I think it leaves (and perhaps this was the intention) the reader with so many unanswered questions about his life due to the lack of detail in many of the characters, their stories, and their traits.
But this is also reality: sometimes we never get to find out what happens to people who come and go through our life.

[Leon Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It could have been much, much longer, but I liked the short, bare bones prose. Wish I could read it in French!