In 2012 an unlikely book exploded bestseller charts in Russia, easily outselling its close competitors. It is a collection of stories about life of the Russian Orthodox Church called Everyday Saints and other stories. In some of these, the author, Arkhimandrit Tikhon, described his path of becoming a clergyman and his early life in the Pskov-Pechora monastery.… Read the rest
At the moment, the world is fascinated with the film adaptation of the penultimate sub-chapter of the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. The YA dystopia has gathered an unprecedented popularity amongst adults too. Its theme of oppression and totalitarianism reflects our modern history, the states of North Korea or the Soviet Union are two examples.… Read the rest
Natasha Perova, the founder of Glas
Today I am thrilled to present you Natasha Perova, whose titanic efforts resulted in many English translations of great contemprorary Russian books becoming available for international readership. Natasha helped to show the world that Russian literature not only survived collapse of the Soviet Union, it is very much in blossom.… Read the rest
A portrait of Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov by Pyotr Zabolotsky, painted in 1837.
This week the world celebrates the 200th birthday of a great Russian poet, Mikhail Lermontov, who had Scottish roots, so it’s a cultural hallmark in Russia as well as in the UK.… Read the rest
Traditions of magic realism in Russian literature probably have roots in its pagan culture. There’s a contradiction here you may say. Russia is supposed to be dominated by the conservative Orthodox Christianity, the country was baptized over a millennium ago.
Yet paganism never seized to exist in Russia.… Read the rest
Eighteen years after its publication, the novel Buddha’s Little Finger (Чапаев и Пустота) written by Victor Pelevin remains important and fresh.
Graffiti in Kharkiv (Ukraine), illustrating Pelevin’s novel Buddha’s Little Finger by V. Vizu (own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) undefined GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]
In addition to the Congress of Translators, I was fortunate to attend the 27th International Moscow Book Fair on the 3-7th of September 2014. There I participated in a panel discussing self-publishing revolution and its onset in Russia.
Russian book industry is lagging behind its American counterpart in terms of its infrastructure and general consumer’s habits, yet its gross value is impressive – over 2 billion dollars a year.… Read the rest