Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) was not only a great author – he was also something of an empire. He lived in a time of immense social contradictions, wrote and commented on everything – from morality and religion to politics and social issues – and his influence was so great that one could argue that Russia had three power centers during his lifetime: the Tzar, the Church and Tolstoy himself.
The novel begins in 1904. On a train heading east through Russia against Manchurite. Andrej is voluntarily on his way out in the Russian-Japanese war. He feels compelled to fulfill the threatening prophecy about his future as the father has written in the drama `The Living Body ‘- a sedictory story that ends with his alter ego, the immoral Fedja, fulfilling the duty to take his life. The journey through the vast landscape wakes Andreys’s memories to life. The novel Andrej was nominated for the August Prize and was awarded the Lundequistska Bookstore Literature Prize, the Torgny Segerstedt Prize, the Swedish Radio’s Great Novel Prize and a later Swedish Academy’s Signe Ekbladh-Eldh’s Prize.
The novel is translated to Finnish, Russian, Lithuanian and is also published in China.