‘Banned’ by Russia, Archer’s novel about KGB assassination
HIS latest novel begins with a gruesome KGB assassination, and charts the actions of a ruthless Moscow regime.
So Jeffrey Archer may not be surprised – if a little disappointed – that he has failed to find a publisher for his book Heads You Win in Russia.
The former MP, 78, has been turned down by 21 companies, even though 16 of his previous releases were translated for Russian audiences.
In being effectively banned by Russia, he can now claim to rank alongside George Orwell and Boris Pasternak, whose novels Animal Farm and Doctor Zhivago were outlawed by Communist censors. Heads You Win – released in Britain last week – follows protagonist Alexander Karpenko, who flees Russia in the Sixties following the assassination of his father. He returns years later to confront his past.
Archer, who spent two weeks researching the novel in St Petersburg last year, has even been warned by well-placed political friends to hire bodyguards while promoting the new novel.
Jeremy Trevathan of Pan Macmillan, Archer’s UK publisher, said: ‘Jeffrey is the master of the unexpected plot twist and this book is one of his absolute best in that regard. It is a real shame that it is being denied to Russian readers and fans of Jeffrey, who would especially enjoy the twists and turns in this particular novel.’ Archer has sold more than 330 million books across 97 countries since publishing his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976.
His back catalogue includes three volumes of prison diaries following his 2001 conviction for perjury and perverting the course of justice, which saw him sent to HMP Belmarsh. He had served as an MP from 1969 to 1974, becoming deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in 1985, and was awarded a peerage by John Major in 1992.
His failure to find a Russian publisher comes months after Moscow’s ministry of culture banned British satirist Armando Iannucci’s film The Death Of Stalin from cinemas. The Bafta- nominated comedy, starring Michael Palin, and Steve Buscemi, depicts the chaotic aftermath of the dictator’s death but was deemed to contain ‘information whose distribution is legally banned in Russia’.
‘It is a real shame’