Horowitz et mon père by Alexis Salatko

Winner of the 2006 Prix Jean Freustié

Horowitz et mon père (Horowitz and My Father) is the touching and often humorous story of Dimitri Radzanov, a classmate and rival of Vladimir Horowitz at the Kiev Conservatory, who is forced to flee to France with his mother on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution. Dimitri’s mother, convinced her son is more talented than Horowitz and frustrated by the latter’s meteoric rise to international stardom, hounds Dimitri to resume the piano. Dimitri, however, has other ideas. He meets an actress who becomes the love of his life, marries and has a son, and is content to work in a record factory. The Occupation has a devastating effect on the Radzanov family, but Dimitri finally succumbs to his mother’s entreaties, takes up the piano again, and fills the house with music. Narrated by Dimitri’s son, this poignant story, populated by richly drawn characters, has an ending that will surprise and move you.

Best known as a screenwriter, Alexis Salatko has collaborated with such esteemed directors as Roman Polanski, Gérard Brach, and Didier Decoin on film and television productions. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was a journalist and columnist for Ouest France and La Presse de la Manche while also editing the "Rivages d’encre" collection for Éditions Isoète. His first novel, Le Tigre de l’écume, was published in 1981. Since then he has written seven books, including S’il pleut, il pleuvra (1988), which won the Prix de la vocation. Horowitz et mon père was published in 2006.