Boris Akunin is the pen-name of the Georgian author, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, the former editor of a literary magazine who is now a full-time writer of fiction. Amongst the latter are fourteen novels and novellas that feature Erast Fandorin.
I have just finished reading the second books in the series, THE TURKISH GAMBIT.
It is a spy mystery set during the Siege of Plevna, and the story follows Erast Fandorin's efforts to counter the damage being done to the Russian war effort by a well-disguised Turkish spy, Anwar Efendi. In the process of unmasking the spy, Fandorin helps to capture Plevna and end the war.
I read this when it was first published ... and I had forgotten just how excellent a book it is.
I am now thinking about looking for my copy of the DVD of the film of the book made by a Russian production company, Studio TriTe. My DVD is dubbed into German and has English subtitles ... so it requires one's full concentration to watch it! I think that it is in our offsite storage unit, so I'll make a special point to hunt it down the next time I visit it.
THE TURKISH GAMBIT was written by Boris Akunin and the English language paperback was published in 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (ISBN 978 0 7538 1999 9).
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Bob -
ReplyDeleteSounds like something I should look up! The writer being Georgian, I rather expected the villain to be Turkish!
Incidentally, there IS a Turkish Gambit in chess, though I have known it more as the Queen's Pawn Counter-Gambit, or the Elephant Gambit. It goes:
1.e5 e5
2.Nf3 d5 (?) The question mark denotes a poor move.
Black gambits a pawn to enter a wild game in which he has to play very well just to survive. The thing is considered unsound. I have occasionally played it myself, with fairly good results!
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteI’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the Erast Fandorin books. Each is written in a different detective genre. This one is a spy story but others include a traditional ‘locked room’ mystery and an assassination plot.
I’m not a great chess player but it doesn’t surprise me that such a thing as the Turkish Gambit exists.
All the best,
Bob
There seems to be a Russian-language version of the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GtowQRE7ck, apparently lasting 3 hrs 22 mins. A version (in Russian, I think) with English subtitles is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jto_Yx_WbT8, though this only lasts 2hrs 4 mins.
ReplyDeleteToby E,
DeleteAs an avid YouTube watcher, I’ll certainly look for the Russian-language version of the film, even if it is over two-hundred minutes long.
All the best,
Bob
I enjoyed that book, and a couple of others by the same author (The Death of Achilles and The Winter Queen). He's a bit of a hero having been declared a "foreign agent" but the Russian Ministry of Justice.
ReplyDeleteNundanket,
DeleteSomehow I’m not that surprised that run up against the Russian authorities. After all, using a pen name that spells out ‘Bakunin’ - one of the foremost Russian anarchists - would seem to indicate a certain degree of disdain for the establishment!
All the best,
Bob