Alex Christofi.
ALEX CHRISTOFI: FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY BIOGRAPHY
DOSTOEVSKY IN LOVE (2022)
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (born 1821) is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century. Born into a minor landowning family, he qualified in medicine and worked both in civilian hospitals and as a military doctor. He published his first novel, Poor Folk, when he was 24. Dostoevsky fell fould of the Tsarist regime in 1849, when he was arrested for belonging to a dissident literary group, the Petrashevsky Circle. He was given the death sentence, but thiw as commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a prison in Siberia, then undertook six years of exiled military service. On release he travelled around Europe, developing a gambling addicition which led him into recurring financial difficulties. He spent the rest of his life as a professional writer, editor and publisher. His most famous novels were Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). By the time he died (at the age of 59) he had become greatly celebrated as one of Russia’s most famous and widely read authors.
The Guardian wrote of Chirstofi’s Dostoevsky biography: ‘Christofi immerses us in the forcefield of Dostoevsky's thought . Beautifully crafted and realised, but it is the great love that Christofi feels for his subject that makes this such a moving book.’ The Financial Times wrote: ‘A fierce account of Dostoevsky's inner and outer life . Christofi's rapidly unrolling tapestry helps to capture the madcap, tumbling and ferocious quality of Dostoevsky's style.’
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Alex Christofi’s father is Cypriot, his mother English. He grew up in Bournemouth, attending Bournemouth College where his mother was a teacher. He obtained his degree in English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. His initial career was as a literary agent. He wrote two novels before writing his biography of Dostsoevsky. Alongside his writing career he has works in non-fiction publishing for Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House. He lives in London.
