Groupe de lecture “Le mage du Kremlin” de Giuliano da Empoli

Once a month, the reading group meets up to discuss a couple of books selected in advance (from classical to contemporary French literature) and discovers other members’ views on them. Meetings are taking place at the Institut français d’Écosse, usually on the last Tuesday of the month.

About the book :

Le mage du Kremlin is the debut novel by Giuliano da Empoli published in April 2022 by Éditions Gallimard. It won the 2022 Grand prix du roman de l’Académie française and was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt, which was awarded to Vivre vite by Brigitte Giraud.

The author recounts his imagined meeting, one night in Moscow, with the enigmatic Vadim Baranov, once an artist, producer of reality TV shows and éminence grise of Vladimir Putin, nicknamed “the Tsar”. Retired from business at the time of the story, Baranov recounts his youth, his life in 1990s Russia, his contribution to the political rise of “the Tsar” from 1999 and his experience of power, the central theme of the book.