My Affair With Stalin

Simon Sebag Montefiore

From Shelf: Fiction

This comic novel sets the concept of a Stalinist regime against the quintessentially English backdrop of a prep school. The bespectacled Kahn is transformed from swot and wimp to hero and ruthless autocrat, but Stalin is eventually replaced in his affections by girls and punk rock.

'Montefiore's skill in transferring Stalin's tactics and the revolutionary dynamic to a story of schoolboy rivalry ensures that what might have been a narrative corset becomes a metaphorical mirror. Schoolboy machinations mimic Soviet power struggles and both, in turn, wittily reflect the daily political manoeuvrings of many organisations. The camaraderie fostered by a cause, the corruption of power and the glamour of evil are all anatomised with a light touch and an honest eye...Engaging and assured...a thoroughly nourishing confection.' The Times.

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