Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi: A Novel Based on the True Historic Correspondence and Mentorship Between Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi
Kindle Edition
by Jonathan Kis-Lev (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 558 customer reviews
Kindle
$9.22
— —
Product details
File Size: 4592 KB
Print Length: 526 pages
==========
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi brings a turbulent era to vivid life. All the conflicts and complexities of British India and Czarist Russia are mirrored in Kis-Lev's story. It's breathlessly exciting and heartbreaking by turns--an emotional and historical page-turner." --Laila Hoja, The Book Reviewer
"Painstakingly researched, beautifully hewn, compulsively readable--this enlightening literary journey takes us from Russia to India via South Africa and Great Britain, revealing remarkable historical details, dark family secrets, and bringing to life two of the men who shaped our world as we know it. A must read." --Maria von Klaus, Der Tag
"A triumphant, controversial, and fascinating plunge into the complexities of a mentor-mentee relationship at the turn of the 19th century. You'll never look at Gandhi or at Tolstoy the same way again." --Jo Levi, The Reviewer
"Author Jonathan Kis-Lev had performed tireless research. Whether it is detailing Tolstoy's life as a reluctant count with many serfs, or recounting the world of Gandhi as a young inexperienced lawyer in the racist South Africa and India, Kis-Lev clearly has done his homework. The result is breathtaking." --Nadia Joels, The Bookreview Club
"This is a stunning historical novel that will keep you up late, hoping the engaging story never ends. Highly, highly recommended!" --Dennis Clark, This Week
"A compelling, page-turning narrative. 'Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi' falls squarely into the groundbreaking category of fiction that re-examines history from a fresh, psychological point of view. It's smart, thoughtful and also just an old-fashioned good read." --Michael Sender, The Sender Report
"A powerful story for readers everywhere. Kis-Lev has brought readers a firsthand glimpse into one of history's most fascinating eras. A novel that brings to life what these two great men have endured in order to bring their light to the world. I was moved to tears." -- Joanna Berlinger, author, The Night's Sorrow
"Extremely moving and memorable. . . Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi should appeal strongly to historical fiction readers and to book clubs that adored Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale." -- Hue Knight, author, The Corner of My Heart
"Inspired by the actual correspondence between the two giants, Kis-Lev has woven together the stories of Gandhi, Tolstoy, as well as of Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana, into a riveting story that reveals the bravery, cruelty and hope at the beginning of the 20th century. This is a part of history that should never be forgotten." --Drake Eakin, Eakin-Bloomberg
"This is the kind of book I wish I had the courage to write--a profound, unsettling, and thoroughly captivating look at mentorship and love through the dark lens of racial oppression." --Mira Hudson, The Life of Mira
"Rich with historical detail and riveting to the end, Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi weaves the lives of two astonishing figures into a story of extraordinary moral power set against the harrowing backdrop of imperialism and oppression." --Aven K. Lint, author and speaker
"Riveting. . . Kis-Lev moves effortlessly across physical and ethical battlegrounds, and across the territory of the heart and soul. I find it hard to recall the last time I read a novel that moved me so deeply." --Abraham Miseler, author, Thinking Differently
"Fascinating read... A student-teacher story that will make your heart sing. Tolstoy and Gandhi come to life authentically, directed by Kis-Lev's detailed research and glittering prose." --Daily Preacher
From the Author
EXCERPT © All rights reserved, Goldsmith Press. Reprinted by permission:
ROME,
DECEMBER 1931
Tatiana Tolstoy-Sukhotin stood near the window, waiting.
The 67-year-old countess stared at the street below thinking, 'When will he arrive? The telegram said he'd arrive at three...'
She sat down on the couch in her little apartment. A moment later she got up and walked back to the window, thinking wistfully of the snow she loved in her childhood. She missed the snow.
The newspaper on her coffee table showed his photograph on the front page: those odd round spectacles, the brown skin, the smile with several teeth missing.
She wanted to be upset with this man for not arriving on time, but she found herself instead smiling back at the face covering the newspaper's front page.
She leaned forward and looked at the article again: "Gandhi Arrivando questa mattina a Roma."
She read the title again. Though she had only lived in Italy for a few years, she could understand Italian fairly well. It was very similar to Latin, of which she had an adequate knowledge. Her father had taught her well.
"Gandhi Arriving in Rome This Morning," she translated to herself, "The Indian leader to visit Prime Minister Benito Mussolini in the evening. In the morning he will be greeted by the naval cadets, and then taken to meet with government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dino Grandi. In the afternoon, prior to visiting Il Duce, Gandhi will be visiting the Tolstoy Museum in Rome."
She was glad the address was not mentioned. The last thing she wanted was a throng of people and the hideous reporters with their cameras. She had suffered because of them throughout her life, always chasing her father. At that moment she remembered with perfect clarity when her father was dying at the stationmaster's home in that forsaken place. She shivered remembering how the press nearly broke into his room there. What a terrifying experience.
She shuddered slightly--the memory of her father brought her pain. She looked at the drawing on the wall that she drew many years ago--22 years ago, to be exact. A portrait of her father in the year before his passing. Her father looking lost in his thoughts, almost daydreaming, his large white beard dissolving into the dark background.
She looked at the clock nervously. If he doesn't come soon, she thought, there will be no visit to the "Tolstoy Museum."
For the past two days she had been cleaning the downstairs room feverishly. The "museum" was one room, a small room she rented from the building's owner, which she dedicated to her father's legacy. It was all she could afford. But it was better than nothing.
Her father, with his socialistic ideals, left his works in the public domain. And even though her late mother was eventually able to win the rights back, as soon as the Communists took over, all the money was gone.
As she peeked out the window, she was surprised to realize how excited she was. This was only natural. She had followed Gandhi's career for over twenty years. It would be exciting for anyone to meet such a revered and celebrated leader.
But that was not it, she knew. She had met many leaders throughout her life. The fame did not move her.
It was her excitement to meet this one man. The one person about whom her father spoke with such admiration. To whom her father wrote his longest letter in his last months, when he would write no more than a paragraph to others. To the young Gandhi he wrote three full pages.
What was it about Gandhi that her father had recognized long before the Indian leader was famous? And how had her father come to admire the young Indian lawyer living in South Africa?
It was rare for her father to speak with so much admiration of anyone really. Her father criticized the Czar, scolded the Patriarch of Moscow, rebuked the army's generals. He laughed at other authors, he criticized almost every artist, including Chekov and even Shakespeare. He mocked his own children, and she was not spared from that.
And yet, this one Hindu, this one little man, somehow elicited only compliments from her father. How she had longed for that kind of approval from him.
But her father's approval was not to be.
She found herself fidgeting with her fingers like a schoolgirl, and tried to calm herself, but her thoughts kept drifting to her father.
===============
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's Jonathan Kis-Lev Page
Follow
Biography
From WIKIPEDIA:
by Jonathan Kis-Lev (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 558 customer reviews
Kindle
$9.22
— —
Product details
File Size: 4592 KB
Print Length: 526 pages
==========
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi brings a turbulent era to vivid life. All the conflicts and complexities of British India and Czarist Russia are mirrored in Kis-Lev's story. It's breathlessly exciting and heartbreaking by turns--an emotional and historical page-turner." --Laila Hoja, The Book Reviewer
"Painstakingly researched, beautifully hewn, compulsively readable--this enlightening literary journey takes us from Russia to India via South Africa and Great Britain, revealing remarkable historical details, dark family secrets, and bringing to life two of the men who shaped our world as we know it. A must read." --Maria von Klaus, Der Tag
"A triumphant, controversial, and fascinating plunge into the complexities of a mentor-mentee relationship at the turn of the 19th century. You'll never look at Gandhi or at Tolstoy the same way again." --Jo Levi, The Reviewer
"Author Jonathan Kis-Lev had performed tireless research. Whether it is detailing Tolstoy's life as a reluctant count with many serfs, or recounting the world of Gandhi as a young inexperienced lawyer in the racist South Africa and India, Kis-Lev clearly has done his homework. The result is breathtaking." --Nadia Joels, The Bookreview Club
"This is a stunning historical novel that will keep you up late, hoping the engaging story never ends. Highly, highly recommended!" --Dennis Clark, This Week
"A compelling, page-turning narrative. 'Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi' falls squarely into the groundbreaking category of fiction that re-examines history from a fresh, psychological point of view. It's smart, thoughtful and also just an old-fashioned good read." --Michael Sender, The Sender Report
"A powerful story for readers everywhere. Kis-Lev has brought readers a firsthand glimpse into one of history's most fascinating eras. A novel that brings to life what these two great men have endured in order to bring their light to the world. I was moved to tears." -- Joanna Berlinger, author, The Night's Sorrow
"Extremely moving and memorable. . . Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi should appeal strongly to historical fiction readers and to book clubs that adored Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale." -- Hue Knight, author, The Corner of My Heart
"Inspired by the actual correspondence between the two giants, Kis-Lev has woven together the stories of Gandhi, Tolstoy, as well as of Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana, into a riveting story that reveals the bravery, cruelty and hope at the beginning of the 20th century. This is a part of history that should never be forgotten." --Drake Eakin, Eakin-Bloomberg
"This is the kind of book I wish I had the courage to write--a profound, unsettling, and thoroughly captivating look at mentorship and love through the dark lens of racial oppression." --Mira Hudson, The Life of Mira
"Rich with historical detail and riveting to the end, Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi weaves the lives of two astonishing figures into a story of extraordinary moral power set against the harrowing backdrop of imperialism and oppression." --Aven K. Lint, author and speaker
"Riveting. . . Kis-Lev moves effortlessly across physical and ethical battlegrounds, and across the territory of the heart and soul. I find it hard to recall the last time I read a novel that moved me so deeply." --Abraham Miseler, author, Thinking Differently
"Fascinating read... A student-teacher story that will make your heart sing. Tolstoy and Gandhi come to life authentically, directed by Kis-Lev's detailed research and glittering prose." --Daily Preacher
From the Author
EXCERPT © All rights reserved, Goldsmith Press. Reprinted by permission:
ROME,
DECEMBER 1931
Tatiana Tolstoy-Sukhotin stood near the window, waiting.
The 67-year-old countess stared at the street below thinking, 'When will he arrive? The telegram said he'd arrive at three...'
She sat down on the couch in her little apartment. A moment later she got up and walked back to the window, thinking wistfully of the snow she loved in her childhood. She missed the snow.
The newspaper on her coffee table showed his photograph on the front page: those odd round spectacles, the brown skin, the smile with several teeth missing.
She wanted to be upset with this man for not arriving on time, but she found herself instead smiling back at the face covering the newspaper's front page.
She leaned forward and looked at the article again: "Gandhi Arrivando questa mattina a Roma."
She read the title again. Though she had only lived in Italy for a few years, she could understand Italian fairly well. It was very similar to Latin, of which she had an adequate knowledge. Her father had taught her well.
"Gandhi Arriving in Rome This Morning," she translated to herself, "The Indian leader to visit Prime Minister Benito Mussolini in the evening. In the morning he will be greeted by the naval cadets, and then taken to meet with government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dino Grandi. In the afternoon, prior to visiting Il Duce, Gandhi will be visiting the Tolstoy Museum in Rome."
She was glad the address was not mentioned. The last thing she wanted was a throng of people and the hideous reporters with their cameras. She had suffered because of them throughout her life, always chasing her father. At that moment she remembered with perfect clarity when her father was dying at the stationmaster's home in that forsaken place. She shivered remembering how the press nearly broke into his room there. What a terrifying experience.
She shuddered slightly--the memory of her father brought her pain. She looked at the drawing on the wall that she drew many years ago--22 years ago, to be exact. A portrait of her father in the year before his passing. Her father looking lost in his thoughts, almost daydreaming, his large white beard dissolving into the dark background.
She looked at the clock nervously. If he doesn't come soon, she thought, there will be no visit to the "Tolstoy Museum."
For the past two days she had been cleaning the downstairs room feverishly. The "museum" was one room, a small room she rented from the building's owner, which she dedicated to her father's legacy. It was all she could afford. But it was better than nothing.
Her father, with his socialistic ideals, left his works in the public domain. And even though her late mother was eventually able to win the rights back, as soon as the Communists took over, all the money was gone.
As she peeked out the window, she was surprised to realize how excited she was. This was only natural. She had followed Gandhi's career for over twenty years. It would be exciting for anyone to meet such a revered and celebrated leader.
But that was not it, she knew. She had met many leaders throughout her life. The fame did not move her.
It was her excitement to meet this one man. The one person about whom her father spoke with such admiration. To whom her father wrote his longest letter in his last months, when he would write no more than a paragraph to others. To the young Gandhi he wrote three full pages.
What was it about Gandhi that her father had recognized long before the Indian leader was famous? And how had her father come to admire the young Indian lawyer living in South Africa?
It was rare for her father to speak with so much admiration of anyone really. Her father criticized the Czar, scolded the Patriarch of Moscow, rebuked the army's generals. He laughed at other authors, he criticized almost every artist, including Chekov and even Shakespeare. He mocked his own children, and she was not spared from that.
And yet, this one Hindu, this one little man, somehow elicited only compliments from her father. How she had longed for that kind of approval from him.
But her father's approval was not to be.
She found herself fidgeting with her fingers like a schoolgirl, and tried to calm herself, but her thoughts kept drifting to her father.
===============
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's Jonathan Kis-Lev Page
Follow
Biography
From WIKIPEDIA:
Jonathan Kis-Lev is an Israeli award-winning author, artist and peace activist. He is the author of five novels and 10 nonfiction books and is the winner of the Bamahane Prize for Literature.
Born in Israel in 1985, Jonathan was involved in the Jewish-Arab peace movement beginning at age 11. In his memoir, My Quest for Peace, he writes of his first encounter with Palestinian children and how he was bewildered to find that they “didn’t hate” him. This experience led him to spend his teen years participating in numerous coexistence programs. At the age of 16 he was sent for two years to a UN model college, United World College, in Vancouver, Canada. Upon returning to Israel Kis-Lev co-founded several peace programs between Christians, Muslims and Jews. At age 26 he was taken under the wing of Israel’s late President, Shimon Peres, who encouraged him to share his view of Middle Eastern peace in a book, which became his first book. Kis-Lev became an advisor to Peres and was a regular member of Peres’ Young Leaders Forum.
Kis-Lev lives in Israel’s Galilee with his wife, Hallel, and their daughter, Sarah.
Publication Date: October 28, 2017
--------------
English Lit major
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative story about two historically important people.
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
An easy read. I really learned a lot about the humanity of Tolstoy. The characterization of Tatiana and of Gandhi gave me pause - it was hard to believe the instant intimacy they established upon their first and only meeting. The obvious word choice mistakes and spelling errors throughout the novel were perplexing for such a highly touted novel. I would recommend the book.
---
Jennifer McCarthy
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not a page-turner
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
The info I learned about Tolstoy and Gandhi was interesting and revealing. The format was a unique vehicle for compressing the compiled info about the two, but overall it was a bit slow.
----
vijaya sambandam
5.0 out of 5 stars My interpretation of this remarkable friendship and truly an educative relationship.
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018
Verified Purchase
Life journey is preprogrammed and yet executed either splendidly or sad spoil!
This story tells a real happening that ended splendidly for human race!
Thanks to the author for writing.
---
Robert J. Teeter
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea marred by sloppy editing
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2018
Note: This is a review of "Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi" by Jonathan Kis-Lev. Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
I am interested in both Tolstoy and Gandhi and wanted to know more about their connection and correspondence. This book adds a fictional framework that, for me, didn't add much to my understanding. It could have been a 100-page essay with footnotes and bibliography. Instead, it's five times as long with few indications of sources of the "thousands of pages" its author claims to have reviewed.
In addition to editing for length, this book could have used a good editor to correct spelling and punctuation errors and non-idiomatic English. In an interview at the back of the book, the author says he self-published this book because he cares about his readers. This reader was pained by the many errors that would have been corrected by a good editor at a publishing firm.
If you want to read the letters between Tolstoy and Gandhi, with a few other pieces (Tolstoy's "Letter to a Hindu," Gandhi's notes on his Tolstoy Farm), I recommend "Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, " edited with an introduction by B. Srinivasa Murthy (Long Beach Publications, 1987).
---
Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
-------
English Lit major
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative story about two historically important people.
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
An easy read. I really learned a lot about the humanity of Tolstoy. The characterization of Tatiana and of Gandhi gave me pause - it was hard to believe the instant intimacy they established upon their first and only meeting. The obvious word choice mistakes and spelling errors throughout the novel were perplexing for such a highly touted novel. I would recommend the book.
---
Jennifer McCarthy
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not a page-turner
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
The info I learned about Tolstoy and Gandhi was interesting and revealing. The format was a unique vehicle for compressing the compiled info about the two, but overall it was a bit slow.
----
vijaya sambandam
5.0 out of 5 stars My interpretation of this remarkable friendship and truly an educative relationship.
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018
Verified Purchase
Life journey is preprogrammed and yet executed either splendidly or sad spoil!
This story tells a real happening that ended splendidly for human race!
Thanks to the author for writing.
---
Robert J. Teeter
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea marred by sloppy editing
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2018
Note: This is a review of "Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi" by Jonathan Kis-Lev. Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
I am interested in both Tolstoy and Gandhi and wanted to know more about their connection and correspondence. This book adds a fictional framework that, for me, didn't add much to my understanding. It could have been a 100-page essay with footnotes and bibliography. Instead, it's five times as long with few indications of sources of the "thousands of pages" its author claims to have reviewed.
In addition to editing for length, this book could have used a good editor to correct spelling and punctuation errors and non-idiomatic English. In an interview at the back of the book, the author says he self-published this book because he cares about his readers. This reader was pained by the many errors that would have been corrected by a good editor at a publishing firm.
If you want to read the letters between Tolstoy and Gandhi, with a few other pieces (Tolstoy's "Letter to a Hindu," Gandhi's notes on his Tolstoy Farm), I recommend "Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, " edited with an introduction by B. Srinivasa Murthy (Long Beach Publications, 1987).
---
Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
-------
