Press Reviews...
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RTBF (Belgian Radio and Television): "Marina Yaloyan's powerful debut novel tells the collapse of the Soviet Union through the eyes of a child"
The author explores human relationships with great sensitivity, particularly the bond between mother and child, or child and grandmother, while showing how an artistic vocation can emerge and flourish even in times of crisis. Art becomes a means of inner survival—a way to transcend hardship and hold on to what truly matters in the face of adversity.
published on June 8th, 2026
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Singulars Magazine : “Writing Exile, Safeguarding Freedom"
What inspired you to write this novel? Is it rooted in your personal memories?
The inspiration for "The LIttel Pianist' goes back a long way. I stringly believe that some books are simply meant to be written—that they find their author as much as the author finds them. The stories that feel the most authentic are often the ones that are stripped down to the bare emotional truth, born out of complete honesty. "The Little Pianist" is born from that kind of truth.
published on May 19th, 2026
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Malraux Commission : "The Path to Freedom"
What strikes the reader first is the author's extraordinary command of rhythm. There is never a hint of contrivance, never a word written to produce an effect. The prose moves by quiet inflections and measured breaths, with a restraint that only deepens its emotional force.
In this intensely interior narrative, every scene seems to be carried by an invisible musical score, shaped by flashes of devastating tensions that pierce the body and lodge themselves deep in the reader's memory.
published on June 8th, 2026
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The European Committee: “The Novel of a Generation”
Here, we encounter the other side of Perestroika—the one that heralded the end of an entire world, when people burned their furniture to stay warm and currency had lost all its value. A remarkable and accomplished novel that tackles an exceptionally delicate subject with sensitivity and conviction. It is a book bound to find a wide readership—and one that feels ripe for a film adaptation.
published on May 16th, 2026
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Parliamentary Library: “The Little Pianist”
A remarkable debut novel whose originality definitely sets it apart. With its assured narrative architecture and a series of striking, vividly imagined scenes, it has all the qualities of a story that would lend itself beautifully to a film adaptation.
published on May 16th, 2026
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Armenia Info: “The Little Pianist : When Music Becomes a Refuge as the World Falls Apart”
There is darkness here, but there is light too. The novel is built out of images, shards of memory, and emotions that are almost visceral. The cold that seeps through the walls, the silence of Yerevan, a city that becomes a character in its own right, the hushed voices of the adults, the hunger, the waiting, the books fed to the fire to heat a pot of soup—every detail stirs a memory that feels hauntingly familiar.
Published on May 17th, 2026
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Le Petit Journal: “The Little Pianist, by Marina Yaloyan”
A Literary Note
Through the eyes of a child, Marina Yaloyan invites us to see Perestroika not merely as a political collapse, but as a deeply human experience, lived and felt from within. Music—and the piano in particular—becomes a refuge, a quiet form of resistance against the chaos closing in.
What makes The Little Pianist of Yerevan so compelling is the tension between the brutal reality and the delicacy of a child's perception. Where History tears things apart, imagination and art strive to piece them back together.
Thirty-five years ago, the collapse of the Soviet empire brought an end to a world that had held together fifteen republics, among them Armenia. This turbulent and deeply moving period of history forms the backdrop to "The Little Pianist," an extraordinarily sensitive and dreamlike novel published by Albin Michel.
The author, Marina Yaloyan, now lives in France and her own journey has taken her from Armenia and Russia to the United States. We sat down with her for an in-depth conversation.
Radio Judaica, Bruxelles
Les mots d'Anouk
A story seen through the eyes of a child—a perspective that makes everything more poignant, more lyrical, and, ultimately, more truthful. The collapse of the Soviet Union is witnessed from a little girl's bedroom, from the piano at which she sits, from the whispered conversations of adults. It is the portrait of a vanished world, recaptured with quiet melancholy and rare delicacy, in a prose that never reaches for an artificial effect.
RTBF (Belgian Radio and Television)
The Grande Matinée Chronicles, with Axelle Thiry
Literature:
The Little Pianist, by Marina Yaloyan, published by Albin Michel, interweaves an intimate coming-of-age story with a sweeping historical canvas, as a ten-year-old girl witnesses the disapperance of the Soviet Union in 1991. A deeply moving and finely observed novel in which music becomes both a refuge and an act of quiet resistance amid the brutal economic and political collapse.
