[It] has the strangeness and clarity of a dream. This is historical fiction that transcends the genre - as intense as a thriller, imagined on an epic scale. * * The Times * *
If this savage, sublime epic of civil war in Siberia in 1919 owes a debt to great Russians, it knows how to benefit from standing on the shoulders of giants. Meek surpasses mere pastiche, as idealism - personal, revolutionary and religious - comes to grief in a lonely village. Blood stains the snows (and how!), but horror yields to humanity in this novel of Whites, Reds and even a castrates' cult, all locked in a last battle of dreams and delusions * * The Independent * *
James Meek's immense and consistently impressive narrative incorporates the bizarre-but-true extremes of post-revolutionary Russia. . . Meek keeps the sensational elements at the service of a profound, propulsive plot, while maintaining a pleasingly sardonic edge throughout. . . All this plus an unflinching castration scene which presents a truly eye-watering account of severe pain in the Urals. * * Guardian * *
A strikingly unusual and ambitious novel. . . Violence and sensuality commingle in a tense, complex thriller with the sweep and flavour of Russia * * Sunday Telegraph * *
I was gripped by James Meek's Siberian western The People's Act of Love... With admirable confidence Meek combines big country and big characters to create a sort of intellectual epic, which I enjoyed for its revelation of a fascinating corner of 20th-century history. -- Michael Palin
