Title: JDR announced THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE
Description: We had a Q&A with author James Meek
Description: We had a Q&A with author James Meek
Karen - January 14, 2007 02:36 AM (GMT)
Posted on 7/24/06 at 12:20 PM
We are blessed and very honored to have been granted an interview with award winning author James Meek, so as you read the book, send us your questions to johnnydeppreads@aol.com ! Please send them no later than Sept. 22.
JDR will discuss this book beginning Monday, Sept 25.
This is a mature read, please be aware that adult subject matter is contained in the book.
This is what Johnny Depp says about this book. It's believed that his production company Infinitum Nihil has the film rights.
Johnny Depp says:
"As with any great work, James Meeks’ The People’s Act of Love is bound to raise comparisons – and as in almost all cases, being wrangled into that snare is a trap that should be avoided at all costs. This incredible book should and will rest on its own laurels as a treatise on the complicated nature of love and humanity. The author has himself earned every brilliant word, sentence and chapter of this divine masterpiece."
The People's Act of Love wins Ondaatje Prize
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1781414,00.html
Guardian writer wins Ondaatje prize for Russian civil war novel
Michelle Pauli
Tuesday May 23, 2006
Writer and former Moscow correspondent James Meek
James Meek's drama set during the Russian civil war, The People's Act of Love, has beaten Ian McEwan's Saturday to become the first novel to win the Ondaatje prize.
Set in Siberia in 1919, the novel concerns a renegade Czech army unit stranded in a community dominated by an obscure religious sect. Meek, a Guardian writer, drew on his experience as the paper's foreign correspondent in Moscow in the 1990s. He has since reported from Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The People's Act of Love, his third novel, was longlisted for the Booker prize.
Colin Thubron, the chair of the judges, described the novel as "a work whose huge scope and narrative intensity reads like a forgotten slice of Russian history: a story saturated in the bleakness of Siberia during the Revolution".
The £10,000 Ondaatje prize is now in its third year and recognises "the book of the highest literary merit - fiction or non fiction - that evokes the spirit of a place."
Describing the shortlist, Thubron commented that "across a wide variety of entries, the concept of 'place' stretched from lyric poetry to harsh social history, and threw up a handful of superb achievements."
As well as Saturday, the shortlist - or the "stronglist" as one of the judges, Norman Lebrecht, called it - included Joanna Kavenna's account of her travels through northern Europe, The Ice Museum; Kathleen Jamie's vision of Scotland, Findings; naturalist Richard Mabey's tale of his slow process of recovery from depression, Nature Cure; and Scenes from Comus, narrative poetry from Geoffrey Hill.
Last year's prize was won by Rory Stewart for The Places In Between. The inaugural prizewinner was Louisa Waugh with Hearing Birds Fly.
Here's what the publisher has to say about THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE.
The Book
1919 SIBERIA
In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed nearby is a regiment of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side of the recent conflict. Uncertainty prevails.
Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost gulag. Immediately apprehended, he is brought for interrogation before Captain Matula, the regiment's megalomaniac commander. But the stranger's arrival has caught the attention of others, including Anna, a beautiful, young war widow. And when the local shaman lies dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town . . .
James Meek's novel is a breathtaking contemporary fable staged against one of the most remote landscapes on earth. The remarkable cast of characters and Meek's uncanny ability to evoke the period bring to mind the work of the great Russian masters. The People's Act of Love is a magnificent piece of storytelling, an unforgettable novel and a deeply satisfying read.
We are blessed and very honored to have been granted an interview with award winning author James Meek, so as you read the book, send us your questions to johnnydeppreads@aol.com ! Please send them no later than Sept. 22.
JDR will discuss this book beginning Monday, Sept 25.
This is a mature read, please be aware that adult subject matter is contained in the book.
This is what Johnny Depp says about this book. It's believed that his production company Infinitum Nihil has the film rights.
Johnny Depp says:
"As with any great work, James Meeks’ The People’s Act of Love is bound to raise comparisons – and as in almost all cases, being wrangled into that snare is a trap that should be avoided at all costs. This incredible book should and will rest on its own laurels as a treatise on the complicated nature of love and humanity. The author has himself earned every brilliant word, sentence and chapter of this divine masterpiece."
The People's Act of Love wins Ondaatje Prize
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1781414,00.html
Guardian writer wins Ondaatje prize for Russian civil war novel
Michelle Pauli
Tuesday May 23, 2006
Writer and former Moscow correspondent James Meek
James Meek's drama set during the Russian civil war, The People's Act of Love, has beaten Ian McEwan's Saturday to become the first novel to win the Ondaatje prize.
Set in Siberia in 1919, the novel concerns a renegade Czech army unit stranded in a community dominated by an obscure religious sect. Meek, a Guardian writer, drew on his experience as the paper's foreign correspondent in Moscow in the 1990s. He has since reported from Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The People's Act of Love, his third novel, was longlisted for the Booker prize.
Colin Thubron, the chair of the judges, described the novel as "a work whose huge scope and narrative intensity reads like a forgotten slice of Russian history: a story saturated in the bleakness of Siberia during the Revolution".
The £10,000 Ondaatje prize is now in its third year and recognises "the book of the highest literary merit - fiction or non fiction - that evokes the spirit of a place."
Describing the shortlist, Thubron commented that "across a wide variety of entries, the concept of 'place' stretched from lyric poetry to harsh social history, and threw up a handful of superb achievements."
As well as Saturday, the shortlist - or the "stronglist" as one of the judges, Norman Lebrecht, called it - included Joanna Kavenna's account of her travels through northern Europe, The Ice Museum; Kathleen Jamie's vision of Scotland, Findings; naturalist Richard Mabey's tale of his slow process of recovery from depression, Nature Cure; and Scenes from Comus, narrative poetry from Geoffrey Hill.
Last year's prize was won by Rory Stewart for The Places In Between. The inaugural prizewinner was Louisa Waugh with Hearing Birds Fly.
Here's what the publisher has to say about THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE.
The Book
1919 SIBERIA
In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed nearby is a regiment of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side of the recent conflict. Uncertainty prevails.
Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost gulag. Immediately apprehended, he is brought for interrogation before Captain Matula, the regiment's megalomaniac commander. But the stranger's arrival has caught the attention of others, including Anna, a beautiful, young war widow. And when the local shaman lies dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town . . .
James Meek's novel is a breathtaking contemporary fable staged against one of the most remote landscapes on earth. The remarkable cast of characters and Meek's uncanny ability to evoke the period bring to mind the work of the great Russian masters. The People's Act of Love is a magnificent piece of storytelling, an unforgettable novel and a deeply satisfying read.