The Izmail of the title is a border fortress town, taken and lost by Russian forces numerous times in history. Here it is taken as a metaphor for the task of mastering life itself, and the scope of the task is conveyed through a masterfully interwoven panoply of scenes from different times and settings in Russia: in this tour de force of structure, style, and scholarship the interaction of the scenes creates a genuine sense of the complexity of life.

As Mikhail Shishkin’s father says to him in the autobiographical chapter Conclusion: ‘This life, Mishka, has to be taken like a fortress!’

Among other things, Taking Izmail is a young writer’s own brilliant storming of that fortress.