Review: Emmanuel Carrère’s 'Kolkhoz' Explores Elite French Family History

Kolkhoz by Emmanuel Carrère review – intricate portrait of an elite French family

The author of The Adversary and Yoga unearths a history that includes the Nazis, Russia, and the Académie Française When Emmanuel Carrère’s mother, Hélène, died in 2023, at the age of 94, President Macron spoke at her memorial. She had been “perpetual secretary” of the Académie Française, in effect its head, and 200 people gathered at Les Invalides in Paris to pay tribute. Emmanuel’s father, Louis, was there too, in a wheelchair, only half aware of what was going on. This 400-page memoir, tra...

By Blake Morrison