Andreï Makine was born in
Krasnoyarsk,
Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union on 10 September 1957 and grew up in the city of
Penza about 700 kilometres (435 mi) south-east of Moscow. As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother, he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian. In 1987, he went to France as a member of a teacher's exchange program and decided to stay. He was granted
political asylum and was determined to make a living as a writer in French. However, Makine had to present his first manuscripts as translations from Russian to overcome publishers' skepticism that a newly arrived exile could write so fluently in a second language. After disappointing reactions to his first two novels, it took eight months to find a publisher for his fourth,
Dreams of My Russian Summers. Finally published in 1995 in France as
Le testament français, the novel became the first in history to win both the
Prix Goncourt and the
Prix Médicis plus the
Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. In 2001 Makine began secretively publishing as "Gabriel Osmonde", a total of four novels over ten years, the last appearing in 2011. It was considered a mystery among France's literary subculture; many speculated about who Osmonde might be until, in 2011, a scholar noticed Osmonde's book ''20,000 femmes dans la vie d'un homme'' seemed to have been inspired by Makine's
Dreams of My Russian Summers. Makine confirmed that he was Osmonde. ==Translations==