The Blumkin Project

“An intriguing Russian saga, full of politics, treachery, and a sharp stamp of authenticity. Richly evocative.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Omega Factor“The Blumkin Project is a tale of espionage, revolution, assassination, revenge, and betrayal. It’s a saga, a fantasy, a historical document, a mystery, a love story, and a coming-of-age—all with the added benefit of being compelling, eye-opening, and even (possibly) true!” —Alina Adams, author of The Nesting Dolls and My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region“The Blumkin Project is a brilliant multilayered construction, part memoir and part biography of legendary revolutionary Yakov Blumkin. This is both a page-turner and a beautifully written book—an enlightening and exciting must-read for anyone interested in the Russian Revolution or twentieth-century Europe.” —Ariana Neumann, New York Times bestselling author of When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains“For this man of many identities, each past episode consists of multiple versions…As an expert in the art of narrative, Christian Salmon understands what is most fascinating about this period of history: that the contemporaries of the revolution were, as the poet Mandelstam wrote, ‘cast out of their own biographies.’” —Le Monde des livres “An investigation that reads like a spy novel, but a true novel in which we encounter Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, and Victor Serge.” —Livres Hebdo “A genuine swashbuckling adventure story, Salmon’s book builds on episodes of spectacular, even extraordinary battles…Remarkable.” —Libération

Christian Salmon is a writer and researcher at France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He founded and was a member of the International Parliament of Writers from 1993 to 2003. He is the author of several books, including Verbicide, Devenir minoritaire: Pour une nouvelle politique de la littérature (coauthored with Joseph Hanimann), and Tombeau de la fiction.

William Rodarmor has translated some forty-five books and screenplays in genres ranging from literary fiction to espionage and fantasy. In 2017 he won the Northern California Book Award for fiction translation for The Slow Waltz of Turtles by Katherine Pancol. His recent translations include And Their Children After Them by Nicolas Mathieu (2020) and Article 353 by Tanguy Viel (2019).