by Jay Parini
(New York: Holt, 1990)
As Leo Tolstoy enters the twilight of his life, all is chaos. His admirers regard him as a saint and want him free of all earthly concerns. His wife wants his estate, while the great writer himself tom between the spiritual and the temporal, justice and injustice, and what can be known with the mind and what can be known only with the heart. As his house is increasingly consumed by histrionics, quarrels, intrigue, lovemaking, and betrayal, Tolstoy is forced into a dramatic not from home ... and a startling meeting with death as extraordinary as the man who came to dominate his age.
"One of those rare works of fiction that manages to demonstrate both scrupulous historical research and true originality of voice and perception .... What lifts this book high above most historical novels is Jay Parini's remarkable ability to enter the minds of his characters." -
-New York Times Book Review
"Utterly satisfying .... A loving and thoughtful rendering of the complex character of Leo Tolstoy.
--Washington Post Book World
"A masterpiece."
--The Times Literary Supplement(London)
"Fascinating.... Compelling... Parini has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of Tolstoy."
--Los Angeles Book Review
"Witty, immensely moving.... A powerful story."
--Christian Science Monitor
"Vivid and moving.... It is to Jay Parini's credit that he has been able to flesh out the saga and make it ever new, to give it a shape and resonance we might have thought unimaginable."
--New York Newsday
"A beautiful, deeply moving historical novel."
--Booklist
"This wonderful book combines scholarship and sensitive re-creation of a man's struggle to be true to himself and to others."
--Dallas Morning News
"Parini captures marvelously the paradoxical nature of this genius whose mind and body seemed ever to be at war."
--Washington Post Book World
"The Last Station offers proof that the historical novel has a lot left to say to and about literature. And any novel with as perfectly beautiful a final sentence as this one deserves to be read all the way through."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
"Poets who write novels are a strange and wonderful breed, in love with language as well as character. In The LastStation, Jay Parini has tackled an awesomely ambitious novel and succeeded brilliantly."
--Erica Jong
"Fascinating... a compelling portrait... very highly recommended."
---Library Journal
"Tolstoy imagined-and illuminated."
--Boston Globe
"Entertaining... a three-dimensional portrait of a complex literary figure.... Biographers have described the events of Tolstoy's life in great detail, but none so insightfully and eloquently as Jay Parini in The Last Station."
--Atlanta Constitution
"A skillful tapestry... The Last Stationillumines the larger than fiction life of a literary giant."
--USAToday
"A gem of a historical novel... a novel with a lyric tone that manages to extract excitement from an unlikely subject."
--Newark Star-Ledger
"A searching view of the last year in the life of the author of War and Peace... a kaleidoscopically rich and skillful novel."
--Publishers Weekly
"A notable accomplishment... impressively combines narrative tension with perceptive insights."
--Kirkus Reviews