Richard Lourie Books In Order

The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin

In these pages, Stalin’s psychology is fully revealed, every atom of his madness explored, every twist of his homicidal logic followed to its ruthless conclusion. In a book with the suspense of a thriller and the accuracy of a work of history, the mind responsible for some of the twentieth century’s most horrifying crimes is laid bare. The novel opens with Stalin infuriated and worried that Trotsky is writing his biography from exile in Mexico City. He believes Trotsky’s book is a double threat a character assassination and a search for past crimes. But Trotsky’s account also forces Stalin to reflect on his own life. We see him as a sly and domineering schoolboy, battling a sad*istic father and struggling against a mother who dreams of him entering the priesthood. From these humble but troubled beginnings grows a young man who questions everything morality, evil, the existence of God and who finds answers to justify dictatorship and slaughter. This is a story of two crimes one, the assassination of Trotsky, which Stalin slowly choreographs, and the other an unspeakable murder that Stalin struggles to hide and which Trotsky is about to discover. Stalin’s relentless interior monologue skirting around these crimes, fleshing out the details of his life draws us into his world of perversity until we are face to face with the presence of evil. The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin is an awe inspiring feat of storytelling.

A Hatred for Tulips

People who don t have secrets imagine them as dark and hidden. It’s just the opposite. Secrets are bright. They light you up. Like the bare lightbulb left on in a cell day and night, they give you no rest.

So thinks Joop, the narrator of this brief and bitter tale, whose secret is like no other. He has kept that secret for more than sixty years, but now his brother whom he has not seen since the end of the war has suddenly shown up at his door.

Having grown up in North America with only the vaguest memories of World War II, Joop s brother has returned to Amsterdam to find out what his childhood in Holland had been like. But what he discovers is much more than he bargained for he is startled and dismayed to learn of his own role in the betrayal of Anne Frank.

Transporting readers through the agonizing Na*zi takeover of World War II, Joop recounts his role as a boy desiring to feed his starving family. He figures out a way to provide for them, but in doing so, he sets in motion a chain of events that will horrify the entire world.

Just as he did in the internationally acclaimed The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin, here Richard Lourie takes us into not only a person s mind, a time, and a place, but into the treacherous currents of history that sweep lives away. This gripping fictionalized account of the man who betrayed Anne Frank will not soon be forgotten.

Joop

From internationally renowned author and translator Richard Lourie comes this highly acclaimed fictionalized account of the man who may have betrayed Anne Frank. Set in present day Amsterdam, Joop begins with the startling confession of an old man a secret he has never told anyone. Transporting readers through the agonizing Na*zi takeover of World War II, Joop recounts his role as a boy seeking his father’s praise and desiring to shelter his family. He figures out a way to provide for them, but in doing so, he sets in motion a chain of events that will horrify the entire world.

Russia Speaks

War, passion, suffering and love are elements of this book. The author has spoken to Party members, prostitutes, KGB officials and clowns, and has woven their stories into a saga that reads like a novel, revealing Russian history as told by the people who lived through it.

Hunting the Devil

An account of the search for the killer of fifty three Soviet citizens describes how Russian Chief Inspector Issa Kostoev searched for the man who sexually mutilated, killed, and cannibalized his victims.

Sakharov

The first biography of one of the greatest Russians of the twentieth century.