The Tsar's Dwarf - Softcover

"The brisk pace, flip tone, and confounding convictions of its seventeenth-century narrator make the novel, set in the distant past, feel contemporary ... Fogtdal widens the potentially narrow first-person point of view ... that allows her to relay and consider events she does not witness; this gives the novel a broader historical scope. SØrine's internal life, however, her observations of behavior and investigations of belief, are the source of the novel's zest and contemporary relevance ... Just as I began to grow weary, wondering what might happen next to SØrine, she makes a bold move that leads the novel back to its compelling premise: people's physical oddities are no match for the bizarre manifestations of their desire." --THE BELIEVER

"The Tsar's Dwarf gets off to ... a fine, rambunctious start. Peter H. Fogtdal ... has talent - especially in his rendering of his narrator's biting, contrarian, misanthropic voice. Fogtdal suggests how a vigorous, questioning, nihilistic mind can be a source of strength for a social pariah. And through SØrine, he casts a steady eye on the more general whys and hows of existence ... The English translation by ... Tiina Nunnally has a sharp, clean edge." --THE SEATTLE TIMES

"SØrine's smart and witty ... [her] life is mesmerizing." --BOOKDWARF.COM

"Fogtdal's story is grotesque and sometimes brutal, but so richly imagined that it is captivating from the start ... Part historical fiction, part nightmare, The Tsar's Dwarf is a heart-wrenching tale of humanity." --ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY, BOOK OF THE WEEK

A tale by the Francophonian Literature Prize-winning author of Le Front Chantilly finds female dwarf Soerine given as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great and taken against her will to St. Petersburg to become a court jester, an appointment that sparks her relationship with a fellow dwarf and the judgmental attentions of an ignorant priest. Original.