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
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
While the London Book Fair 2013 is still fresh in my memory, I’ll talk about the Read Russia Showcase, which I attended at the LBF. Read Russia is an initiative aiming to raise awareness about Russian literature outside Russia and connect fans of Russian books to modern Russian authors.… Read the rest
How many modern Russian books have you read or contemporary Russian authors you heard of? Outside Russia its literature is primarily associated with Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. Their books are often in top 100 must-read lists. Yet, it’s strange that the riches of Post-Soviet literature don’t spread much to the West as if being stopped by an invisible barrier.… Read the rest