[2] 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.

[3] As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother,[4] he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian.

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.

[6] After disappointing reactions to his first two novels, it took eight months to find a publisher for his fourth, Dreams of My Russian Summers.

[7] In 2001 Makine began secretively publishing as "Gabriel Osmonde", a total of four novels over ten years, the last appearing in 2011.