Jonathan Mirsky
Grand Cancd Great River: The Travel Daily of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Poet, translated with a commentary by Philip Watson (Frances Lincoln Ltd, £20). A beautifully written and produced account of the journey down two of China's great waterways by one of its main poets. Lu You saw and appreciated every place and every body. Watson's commentary and photographs are perfect.
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £25). A gripping and convincing account of the webtoed monster from his earliest years. Lenin loved him because he was such a reliable and devoted killer.
Energy of Delusion: a Book on Plot by Viktor Shklovsky translated by Shushan Avagyan (Dalkey Archive Press, £9.99). One of Russia's best writers and critics, Shklovsky (died 1984) was learned, relaxed, rambling and in love with Anna Karenina. He said this of critics: 'Most mistakes in literary criticism, I think, occur when people approach so close to the poetic horse — Pegasus — and mount it so swiftly that they miss the saddle and end up on the other side of the horse. Then they get up, look around, the horse is still standing there, but the person is not in the saddle.'
The book I most enjoyed reading this year was Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
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