The Czar's Madman

First edition in English. 8vo, [viii], 352pp., map, notes, grey cloth over boards.

Upper corners slightly bumped, security tag to paste-down of lower board entirely hidden by dust-jacket panel.

Translated by Anselm Hollo from the Finnish Edition by Ivo Iliste. Originally published in 1978 as Kreisri hull by Eesti Raamat, Tallinn. Winner of the 1989 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. A New York Times Notable Book of 1992.

The story of Colonel Timo von Bock discharged as insane after nine years incarceration for addressing the Czar candidly. A survivor of the Vorkuta Gulag camp, Kross is regarded as the grand old man of contemporary Estonian literature, with the publication of 33 books, translated into 23 languages. At a memorial service held in Tallinn's Kaarli Church on Jan. 5, 2008, the then President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, praised Kross "as a preserver of the Estonian language and culture." "Kross's skillful, witty, disciplined, and absorbing novel is a major work of modern Eastern European fiction... A joy to read." –New York Times Book Review