A Heart's Fate, James Meek

1919. Siberia. At the end of an incredible landscape, along the Trans-Siberian Railway, a small town occupied by Czech soldiers awaits attack by the Bolsheviks. The entire town, strangely devoid of children, belongs to a religious sect led by Balashov, the barber. Samarin arrives. He emerges from the forest and claims to have escaped from a prison camp near the Arctic Circle and to be pursued by a cannibal. Anna Petrovna, an attractive young widow, takes an interest in this newcomer. A local shaman is found dead, and suspicion, fear, and madness descend upon the town. The Czech captain, who wants to build a kingdom in this icy corner of the world, convenes a tribunal to judge Samarin and confronts Mutz, the lieutenant full of humanity and common sense. The Reds are coming.

The underlying theme of the entire novel is found in the title. The four main characters agree that love exists; what they disagree on is what it can be. Balashov and Samarin believe that beyond individual love there is the love of God and the love of others, of the homeland, the origin of religious and political fanaticisms.

The act of loving others is literally the act of cannibalism. For Samarin, it is a gesture of love from a dying generation towards the next, which must be happier. This way of seeing an act of cruelty as an act of love is the expression of all idealistic extremism.

With characters of exceptional intensity and grandeur, all the charm of great Russian novels is combined with the storytelling talent and vivacity of a modern thriller.

A bestseller in Great Britain and the United States, this novel has been translated into 27 languages.

Film adaptation rights have been purchased by Johnny Depp (Infinitum Films).

"Spellbinding. [.] Truly a great book." Irvine Welsh, The Guardian

"The best and most original book I have read in years." Louis de Bernières

James Meek was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee. A journalist and senior reporter since 1985, he lived in Russia from 1991 to 1999. He currently lives in London and contributes to The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and Granta. In 2004, his reports on Iraq and Guantanamo received major international awards. He is the author of two other novels and collections of short stories.