Powerful novel of Russian history

The People’s Act Of Love, by James Meek Canongate, €16.

The Russian soul - pitched perpetually between melancholy and savage fatalism - has long fascinated writers in the west. James Meek, a journalist who reported from Moscow for eight years, displays an empathy with the Slavic mindset that transcends cultural tourism.

The Booker-nominated author can also spin a cracking narrative and, in The People's Act Of Love, has delivered a work that is ...