‘The Sublimes’ by Yuri Mamleev, a Russian edition cover, click to get the book in Russian
Almost half a century ago, in 1966, a book was published unofficially via samizdat in the Soviet Russia. A book that both terrified and dazzled the literary establishment.… Read the rest
Обращение в слух by Антон Понизовский
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Обращение в слух, which can be translated as Turning into a Listening Ear, is an important work marking the return of the so-called ‘novel of ideas’. The book won the biggest Russian literary prize this year – The Big Book.… Read the rest
Tatiana Tolstaya (photo credit – Водник, Wikimedia Commons)
Tatiana Tolstaya is one of the most prominent media figures in the modern Russian society, she’s also a publicist and a writer of short stories and novellas, some of which could be found in English.… Read the rest
Andrei Rubanov presenting his book Chlorophilia
Many writers create amazing things they’ve never lived through just out their imagination. Still I find writers who experienced terrifying shortcomings of life are able to create truly vibrant prose. Andrei Rubanov is a modern Russian author who has both a very adventurous personal history and a vivid imagination.… Read the rest
Ludmila Ulitskaya (photo credit – Dmitry Rozhkov, via Wkimedia Commons)
The Soviet Union collapsed 22 years ago and we now have the whole generation of writers in Russia thinking about the recent Russian history and trying to understand and portray the Soviet phenomenon in their stories.… Read the rest
Vladimir Sorokin (credit: Elke Wetzig, via Wikimedia Commons)
Vladimir Sorokin is often called L’Enfant terrible of the Russian literary establishment.Yet mostly this is envy, as Sorokin’s word-wielding skills got him a reputation of the master of prose and put him on the same level with Russian masters.… Read the rest