The Secrets We Kept

The Secrets We Kept is a 2019 debut novel by Lara Prescott published by the Alfred A. Knopf imprint of Penguin Random House, after a bidding war between publishers was ended by a US$2,000,000 deal.[1]

Plot

The novel is a fictionalized account of the writing and CIA's clandestine distribution of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak during the Cold War.[2]

Reviews

The Los Angeles Review of Books compared it to classic Russian literature: “Lara Prescott’s debut follows in the footsteps of classic Russian novels by being an epic love story that is both brilliant and bleak, one that is wound into the fabric of tragic, true history…I can’t stop thinking about this book. Prescott has uncovered a time when people—normal people—risked their lives and careers for literature. Why don’t we see that today?”[3] The New York Times called it a "gorgeous and romantic feast of a novel"[4] and Vogue called it a "stunning spycraft debut."[5]

British author Anna Pasternak sued Prescott in 2019 claiming infringement in her book, Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago.[6] Penguin Random House defended Prescott, saying the claims were "simply without merit."[6] In 2022, Pasternak lost the case, with the judge saying it was "extraordinary" that she brought the claim without ever having read The Secrets We Kept and that The Secrets We Kept had not been copied.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ Flood, Alison (June 11, 2018). "First novel inspired by CIA's Doctor Zhivago plan nets $2m book deal". The Guardian. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  2. ^ Valby, Karen (August 29, 2019). "A Novelist Inspired by the Cold War, a C.I.A. Typing Pool and 'Dr. Zhivago'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  3. ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. December 18, 2019. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  4. ^ Valby, Karen (August 29, 2019). "A Novelist Inspired by the Cold War, a C.I.A. Typing Pool and 'Dr. Zhivago'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  5. ^ "Far and Wide". Archived from the original on 2022-11-14.
  6. ^ a b "Penguin Random House defends Zhivago novel against plagiarism claim". the Guardian. October 1, 2019. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  7. ^ "Descendant of Doctor Zhivago author loses copyright court case". the Guardian. October 25, 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  8. ^ Urwin, Rosamund. "Dan Brown helped me find a happy ending after heartbreak of Zhivago case". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.