Nikolai the Perfect

While post-communist Moscow deals with political transition, Vassili is descending into despair at his wife Anna’s chronic infertility. Following his father Sergey’s footsteps, he travels to Melbourne to teach Russian at a prestigious university. Accompanying him is a wrapped parcel to be delivered to a Helen Dalrymple of Mount Evelyn; a task that proves to be anything but straightforward. Miscast and adri in his new home, Vassili awaits Anna’s arrival. Bringing with her devastating news, it is not long until old resentments surface. At an idyllic guesthouse in the Dandenong Hills, the scene is set for a reckoning that will crack the secrets of the parcel Vassili’s father gave him, and blow the family apart. ‘In this assured, ambitious and intelligent debut, the reader is taken into one family’s turmoil in a country caught in its own turbulence. Private and public dramas mirror and o en illuminate each other. e thread that unites them into a powerful whole is McIntyre’s original voice.’ - Lee Kofman ‘Striking in its lyrical beauty, and profound in what it has to say about love, family and the vagaries of cultural dislocation … a truly marvellous novel’ - Bram Presser