Kites

10 hrs. 9 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Gary Romain

Narrator Nadezhda Vinokurova

Description

An unforgettable novel by Gary devoted to love and French resistance.
“Nowadays, the small museum of Ambroise Fleury’s works is no more than a modest amusement for tourists visiting the little town of Cléry. Most visitors go there after lunch at the ‘Pretty Corner,’ which is unanimously praised in all French guidebooks as one of the town’s main sights. The guidebooks do mention the museum, with a note: ‘We recommend visiting.’ In five halls, most of my uncle’s works are gathered—works that survived the war, the occupation, the battles for liberation—all the burdens and twists of fate that fell to our people.
Kites from all countries are born of the people’s imagination; it always gives them a certain naïveté. Ambroise Fleury’s kites are no exception— even in his last creations, made in old age, this imprint of spiritual freshness and purity can be seen. The museum does not close its doors despite the public’s tepid interest and the modest funds it receives from the municipality: it is too bound up with our history. But most of the time its halls are empty, because we are living through an era when the French would rather forget the past than remember it.”