In the Shadow of the Ark

7 hrs. 2 min.

Children's Books, Audio Fairy Tales & Poems

Language Russian

Author Anne Provoost

Narrator Andrey Mikhalyov

Description

Sixteen-year-old Lucas spends every summer with his mother at his grandfather’s house. Now the grandfather is dead, but everyone around is lying about his past or leaving things unsaid. Feeling that he has gotten “stuck in something unclear,” Lucas tries to find support in friendship with Benoît—a far-right radical and demagogue. Benoît has clear answers to all questions, and he tests his racist ideas with practice.

Annie Provost’s novel “The Fall” was published in 1994 and immediately became a bestseller. It entered the IBBY Honor List, won a dozen European literary awards, and still remains part of the school curriculum in Belgium and the Netherlands. The book has been adapted for theatre three times and was filmed in 2001. And now—its first translation into Russian.

This powerful and gripping text is about the connection between the past and the present, about choice and responsibility, and also—about the tragic story of first love. “If, twenty years ago, someone had asked me what would become of this book in the future, I would probably have answered that in the twenty-first century it would be out of date. Europe would then turn into a melting pot of nationalities and cultures, and racist prejudices would disappear completely,” the author, Annie Provost, says. Alas, the problems raised in “The Fall” are relevant even today.