Emmanuel Carrère's "Kolkhoz": the whole family

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With this new book, less abrupt and more tender than "A Russian Novel," the writer, son of academic Hélène Carrère d'Encausse who died in 2023, continues the exploration of his lineage over four generations.

Emmanuel Carrère, at home in Paris, on September 3. (Julien Mignot/Libération)

Funeral opening and consecration. Kolkhoze begins in the main courtyard of the Invalides, with the national homage to Hélène Carrère d'Encausse , on October 3, 2023. Oils, republican guards, drums, flags. Macron gives a eulogy, with a good word for the end. The permanent secretary of the French Academy urged the movement to complete the current edition of the famous dictionary. A month before her death, at 94, the session was at zygomatic , says the President, the last word in the French language. "After zygomatic , one can die in peace." Much later in the book, the son corrects, the immortals were at zoo , 62 words before the end, his mother was saddened not to be able to finish before her death. This solemn scene before the catafalque of a republican queen of Russian aristocratic descent sets the tone for what follows: reverence and distance, truth and derision. It is also the A side of a double literary homage, the B side – and the end – will be for the father, the more discreet and humble Louis Carrère d'Encausse, who died five