Koba cel cumplit

Martin Amis asks why Western thinkers excused Soviet communism. His main focus is Stalin. He looks at terror and harsh rule. He weighs Soviet claims against life under that rule.

The book blends history with views on politics and his own life. It comes after his memoir, Experience. It starts and ends with parts drawn from his life. In between, Amis writes about Stalin for about a hundred pages. He uses irony and anger to face his subject.

His father, the writer Kingsley Amis, backed communism from 1941 to 1956. Kingsley’s closest friend was Robert Conquest. Conquest’s work showed the terror of Soviet rule. Their views clashed, giving Amis a link to his own life.

Martin Amis was born in Oxford in 1949. He is among the British novelists who rose to fame in the 1980s. He wrote his first novel while working at the Times Literary Supplement. This first novel won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1974. He writes novels, short stories and nonfiction.

Radu Paraschivescu translated this edition from English.