The Czar's Madman

"Spellbindingly readable" -- John Bayley Times Literary Supplement "This gripping novel of the folly of idealism set in the post-Napoleonic Russian empire, has helped Jaan Kross to the stature of world-class novelist... An outdated, almost forgotten moral beauty struggles with the force of modern, well-meaning compromise" The Times "The Czar's Madman is no bloodless allegory but a rich slice of reconstructed history... Kross creates an abundant human landscape with nothing schematic about it" Observer "This author's scope and depth make him a world writer, and his work is translated into every major language" -- Doris Lessing Independent