A Confession

As anyone who's ever summoned up the courage to pick up War and Peace or Anna Karenina will tell you, Tolstoy is one of those writers who seem far more intimidating than they actually are. Despite their epic ambition and doorstop size, those monumental novels - and his brilliant shorter fiction - slip down as easily and as pleasurably as an ice-cream sundae. The same can be said of the short autobiographical piece A Confession, translated by Anthony Briggs in this new edition from the Hesperus Press. If the phrase 'spiritual autobiography' normally has you running for the hills, prepare to reconsider: this is a deeply human book, full of all the psychological insight and close attention to the texture of everyday life that make Tolstoy's fiction so compelling.

A Confession is also essential reading for anyone interested in Tolstoy as a man. The book's publication, years after he wrote it, marked his transformation from worldly man of letters into the mystic bearded sage of his latter years, the uncompromising spiritual and political revolutionary who - as portrayed in the recent film The Last Station - would eventually renounce the world once and for all. In its penetrating insights and surprisingly modern feel, A Confession is an invaluable insight into the heart and soul of a Russian giant.