The Brotherhood of Flying Monks (ePub)

In this lively novel, Metin Ardini returns to a little known period ofEuropean history: the looting and abuse committedby the Bolsheviksagainst the Eastern Orthodox Church.1937. The Soviet regime loots, sells, and destroys the treasures of the Eastern Orthodox Church andcloses over one thousand monasteries. The luckiest of the monks escape and live hidden in the forest.Nicodemus is one of them, who, with the help of a handful of vagabond monks, tries to save the mostbeautiful treasures of Eastern Orthodox religious art. Nicodemus is an imposing figure who is constantlyangry. A crime he committed in his youth led himto take refuge in a monastery, and he lives with theweight of this personal tragedy he cannot confess for fear of being excommunicated. Fascinatingcharacters surround him on all sides: a former trapeze artist, a guileless twenty year old, and a number ofother fanatics.And then there's Irina, who flees from Hell, crosses Europe, arrives in Paris, and changes her identity...Her story is at the heart of this radiant testimony of resistance and redemption that carries us from pre-war to the present day, fromBolshevik Russia to contemporary Moscow, with its billionaires and artgalleries. This is a stunning tale of a few brave men.A French-language writer of Turkish descent, Metin Arditi is the author of essays and novels such asLeTurquetto(Prix Jean Giono, Prix Page des Libraires). He chairs the Instruments of Peace foundation