The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme

At the heart of this epic novel lies a brief, intense love affair between a Frenchwoman and a French pilot on the eve of the battle for Stalingrad.

Decades later, the Russian who as a lonely orphan was inspired by their story returns to Siberia to track its tragic ending.

Spanning fifty years of Russian history from World War Il to the post-Soviet era, this is a profoundly moving tale of heroism, passion and decency in the face of crazed ideology, and of a modern world that seems to have forgotten the lessons of the past.