The best Russian writers. Modern Russian writers (list)
With the departure of Ray Bradbury, the world literary Olympus has become noticeably more empty. Let's remember the most outstanding writers from among our contemporaries - those who still live and create for the joy of their readers. If someone is not included in the list, then add in the comments!1. Gabriel José de la Concordia "Gabo" Garcia Marquez(b. March 6, 1927, Aracataca, Colombia) - the famous Colombian prose writer, journalist, publisher and politician; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. Representative of the literary direction of "magic realism". World fame brought him the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (Cien años de soledad, 1967).
2. Umberto Eco(b. January 5, 1932, Alessandria, Italy) is an Italian scientist-philosopher, medievalist historian, specialist in semiotics, literary critic, writer. The most famous novels are The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum.
3. Otfried Preusler(b. October 20, 1923) - German children's writer, by nationality - Lusatian (Lusatian Serb). The most famous works: "Little Baba Yaga", "Little Ghost", "Little Water" and "Krabat, or Legends of the Old Mill".
4. Boris Lvovich Vasiliev(born May 21, 1924) is a Soviet and Russian writer. Author of the story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (1969), the novel "Not on the Lists" (1974), etc.
5. Ion Druta(b. 09/03/1928) - Moldavian and Russian writer and playwright.
6. Fazil Abdulovich Iskander(03/06/1929, Sukhum, Abkhazia, USSR) - an outstanding Soviet and Russian prose writer and poet of Abkhaz origin.
7. Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin(b. January 1, 1919, Volsk, Saratov province, according to other sources - Volyn, Kursk region) - Russian writer and public figure. Knight of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, Hero of Socialist Labor (1989), President of the Society of Friends of the Russian National Library; Chairman of the Board of the International Charitable Foundation. D. S. Likhachev.
8. Milan Kundera(b. April 1, 1929) is a modern Czech prose writer, living in France since 1975. He writes in both Czech and French.
9. Thomas Transtromer(b. April 15, 1931 in Stockholm) - the largest Swedish poet of the XX century. Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the fact that his brief, translucent images give us a renewed view of reality."
10. Max Gallo(b. January 7, 1932, Nice) - French writer, historian and politician. Member of the French Academy
11. Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa(b. 03/28/1936) - Peruvian-Spanish prose writer and playwright, publicist, politician, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010.
12. Terry Pratchett(b. April 28, 1948) is a popular English writer. The most popular is his cycle of satirical fantasy about the Discworld. The total circulation of his books is about 50 million copies.
13. Yuri Vasilievich Bondarev(b. 03/15/1924) is a Russian Soviet writer. Author of the novel "Hot Snow", the story "Battalions ask for fire", etc.
14. Stephen Edwin King(b. September 21, 1947, Portland, Maine, USA) is an American writer who works in a variety of genres, including horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, drama.
15. Viktor Olegovich Pelevin(born November 22, 1962, Moscow) is a Russian writer. The most famous works: "The Life of Insects", "Chapaev and Emptiness", "Generation "P""
16. Joanne Rowling(b. July 31, 1965, Yate, Gloucestershire, England) is a British writer, author of a series of Harry Potter novels, translated into more than 65 languages and sold (as of 2008) in more than 400 million copies.
Modern domestic literature is rich in a variety of names. Many book resources make their own ratings of the most widely read authors, best-selling books, and top-selling books (RoyalLib.com, bookz.ru, LitRes. Ozon.ru, Labyrinth.ru, Chitai-gorod, LiveLib.ru). We present the "twenty" of the most popular contemporary writers of Russia, whose works can be found in the collection of the Centralized Library System of Volgodonsk.
Speaking of modern Russian literature, one cannot help but recall the masters of writing novels.
Ludmila Ulitskaya. A bright representative of Russian literature of the post-Soviet period. She began writing prose when she was over forty. In her own words: "First she raised children, then she became a writer." The first collection of short stories by the writer, Poor Relatives, was published in 1993 in France and was published in French. Ulitskaya's book "Medea and Her Children" brought her to the finalists of the Booker Prize in 1997 and made her truly famous. The "Big Book" awards were awarded to: a collection of short stories "The People of Our Tsar", "Daniel Stein, Translator", which soon received the status of a bestseller. In 2011, Ulitskaya presented the novel The Green Tent, which tells about dissidents and the lives of people of the generation of the "sixties". The autobiographical prose and essays of the writer were included in the book Sacred Garbage, published in 2012. Admirers of the writer characterize her work exclusively as bold, subtle, intelligent.
Dina Rubina. Critics often refer to her as a "women's writer," although her novel On the Sunny Side of the Street won the third Big Book Prize in 2007, when Ulitskaya's "Stein" won first. The 2004 novel Syndicate, which satirically describes the Moscow branch of the Israeli agency Sokhnut, quarreled her with many in Israel. But Russian readers are still big fans of her work. The story "When it snows" brought the author particular popularity. The work went through several editions, was filmed, played on theater stages. The writer's books are distinguished by colorful language, vivid characters, a rude sense of humor, adventurous plots and the ability to talk about complex problems and things in an accessible way. Of the latest works - the trilogy "Russian Canary". The plot, the character of the characters, the ruby language - it's impossible to tear yourself away from all this!
Aleksey Ivanov.High-quality Russian prose in the genre of realism. The words of one critic that "Alexei Ivanov's prose is the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Russian literature" are often reproduced on the covers of his books. The heroes of Ivanov, whether they are the mythical Voguls of the 15th century (“The Heart of Parma”), the semi-mythical rafters of the 18th century (“The Gold of Riot”) or the mythologized modern Permians (“The geographer drank away his globe”), speak a special language and think in a special way. All works are very different, but they are united by subtle author's humor, gradually turning into satire. The writer Aleksey Ivanov is notable for the fact that while emphasizing his “provinciality”, he nevertheless carefully ensures that the plot follows all the laws of a Hollywood action movie in any novel. His last novel, Bad Weather, was ambiguously received by the reading public. Some talk about the cardboard and lifelessness of the characters, the hackneyedness of the criminal theme, others speak with enthusiasm about the writer's ability to create a portrait of our contemporary - a man brought up during socialism, who received a good Soviet education, and during the global breakdown of society, left alone with his conscience and questions. Is this not a reason to read the novel and form your own opinion about it?
Oleg Roy.A bright name among novelists. He lived outside of Russia for a little over a decade. It was at this time that the beginning of his creative career as a writer falls. The name of the debut novel, Mirror, was presented to post-Soviet readers as an Amalgam of Happiness. After this book, he became famous in book circles. O. Roy is the author of more than two dozen books of various genres for adults and children, as well as articles in popular print media. The writer's work will appeal to those who love just good prose. He writes in the genre of an urban novel - life stories, slightly seasoned with mysticism, which gives the author's work a special flavor.
Pavel Sanaev.The book "Bury Me Behind the Plinth" was appreciated by critics and readers - a story in which the theme of growing up seems to be turned upside down and acquires the features of surreal humor! A book in which the very idea of a happy childhood is parodied in a Homeric funny and subtly evil way. The continuation of the cult story was published only in 2010 under the title "Chronicles of Gouging".
Evgeny Grishkovets.
He began as a playwright and performer of his plays, but then the dramatic scene seemed to him not enough. He added music lessons to this, and then went into prose writing, releasing the novel "The Shirt". It was followed by the second book - "Rivers". Both works, judging by the reviews, were warmly received by readers. Short stories and collections of short stories followed. Despite the fact that the author works very seriously on each of his works and then proudly notes that the “author’s position” in this book is completely different from the “author’s position” in the previous one, it seems that Grishkovets, with his plays, performances, prose and songs all his life he writes the same text named after himself. And at the same time, each of his viewers / readers can say: “He wrote it right about me.” The best books of the author: "Asphalt", "A ... a", collections of stories "Plank" and "Footprints on me."
Zakhar Prilepin.His name is known to the widest circle of readers. Prilepin's childhood and youth passed in the USSR, and growing up took place in the difficult 90s of the 20th century. Hence the frequent reviews of him as the "voice of generations." Zakhar Prilepin was a participant in the Chechen campaigns of 1996 and 1999. His first novel, Pathology, tells about the war in Chechnya, was written by the author in 2003. The writer's best books are the social novels Sin and Sankya, in which he shows the life of modern youth. Most of the author's books were warmly received by the public and critics, "Sin" received rave reviews from fans and two awards: "National Bestseller" and "Faithful Sons of Russia". The writer also has the "Supernational Best" award, which is given out for the best prose of the decade, as well as the all-China award "Best Foreign Novel". The new novel - "Abode", about the life of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, became a bestseller due to its historical and artistic content.
Oksana Robsky.She made her debut as a writer with the novel "Casual", which marked the beginning of the genre of "secular realism" in Russian literature. Oksana Robski's books - "Day of Happiness - Tomorrow", "About LoveOFF / ON", "Oysters in the Rain", "Casual 2. Dance with Head and Feet", etc. caused numerous and contradictory reviews of critics. According to some observers, the novels faithfully reproduce the atmosphere of Rublyovka, testify to the lack of spirituality and artificiality of the world of the so-called Rublyov's wives. Other critics point to numerous inconsistencies and say that Robski's writing has little to do with the realities of everyday life of the business elite. The artistic merits of her works are generally not highly valued; At the same time, some critics emphasize that Robsky, in fact, does not pretend to high artistic goals, but sets out events easily, dynamically and in clear language.
Boris Akunin.Fiction writer. Akunin is a pseudonym, and not the only one. He also publishes his works of art under the names of Anna Borisova and Anatoly Brusnikin. And in life - Grigory Chkhartishvili. The novels and short stories from the New Detective series (The Adventures of Erast Fandorin) brought fame to the author. He also owns the creation of the series "Provincial Detective" ("The Adventures of Sister Pelagia"), "The Adventures of the Master", "Genres". In each of his “children”, a creative person surprisingly combines a literary text with cinematic visuality. Positive feedback from readers testifies to the popularity of all stories without exception.
Many readers prefer detective genres, adventure literature.
Alexandra Marinina.
She is called by critics nothing less than the queen, the prima donna of the Russian detective. Her books are read in one breath. They are distinguished by realistic plots, which make the reader feel with all his heart the events that happen to the characters, empathize with them and think about important life issues. Some of the new works of the author, which have already managed to become bestsellers: "Execution without malice", "Angels on Ice Don't Survive", "Last Dawn".
Polina Dashkova.Wide popularity came to the writer after the publication of the detective novel "Blood of the Unborn" in 1997. During the period 2004-2005. the author's novels "A Place in the Sun", "Cherub" were filmed. The style of the writer is characterized by bright characters, an exciting plot, a good style.
Elena Mikhalkova. Critics say that she is a master "life" detective. The best books of the writer are detective stories in which all the characters have their own story, which is no less interesting to the reader than the main storyline. The author takes plot ideas for his works from everyday life: a conversation with a supermarket clerk, leaflet texts, a family conversation at breakfast, etc. The plots of her works are always thought out to the smallest detail, making each book very easy to read. Among the most popular books: "Whirlpool of Alien Desires", "Cinderella and the Dragon".
Anna and Sergei Litvinov.
They write in the genres of adventure and detective literature. These authors know how to keep the reader in suspense. They have more than 40 novels to their credit: The Golden Maiden, Sky Island, The Sad Demon of Hollywood, Fate Has a Different Name, and many others. In their reviews, readers admit that the Litvinovs are masters of intrigue and an exciting plot. They harmoniously combine in their texts a mysterious crime, vivid characters and a love line.
One of the most popular literary genres among Russian readers is the female love story.
Anna Berseneva. This is the literary pseudonym of Tatyana Sotnikova. She wrote her first novel, Confusion, in 1995. Anna Berseneva is the only author who managed to populate modern women's novels with outstanding male characters. After all, it is precisely the absence of expressive male characters, according to sociologists, that is the reason why the female novel is practically absent on the domestic book market. A. Berseneva's cycle of novels about several generations of the Grinev family - "Unequal Marriage", "Last Eve", "The Age of the Third Love", "The Fisher of Small Pearls", "The First, Random, Only" - formed the basis of the serial television film "Captain's Children ".
Ekaterina Wilmont.
Her books are loved by readers all over Russia. She wrote her first love story at the age of 49 (“The Journey of an Optimist, or All Women are Fools”). Then I tried myself in the genre of children's detective story. In her novels for women, Vilmont reveals the inner world of modern, mature, independent women who are able to manage circumstances, talk about their failures and victories, tragedies and joys, and about what worries every reader - about love. The novels of Ekaterina Vilmont are humor, cheerfulness and witty titles: “In Search of Treasures”, “The Hormone of Happiness and Other Nonsense”, “Incredible Luck”, “With all the foolishness!” , "An intellectual and two Ritas". This is an ironic, light, lively prose that is read in one breath and charges readers with optimism and self-confidence.
Maria Metlitskaya.
Her works appeared on the market of modern women's love literature relatively recently, but have already managed to win the respect of fans. The first novel was published in 2011. The best books of the writer are known for the accuracy of details, life-affirming mood and light humor. The reviews of her fans say that these books helped them find a way out of difficult life situations. To date, the list of the writer's works includes more than 20 novels and short stories. Among her latest works, it is worth highlighting the following: “Our Little Life”, “Mistake of Youth”, “Two Street Road”, “Faithful Husband”, “Her Last Hero” and others.
In modern Russian science fiction there is a whole galaxy of talented writers whose names and works deserve attention.
Sergey Lukyanenko.
One of the most circulated authors among science fiction writers. The first print run of his book The Last Watch was 200,000 copies. Films based on his novels have become an important factor in increasing popularity. The release of the blockbusters "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" increased the circulation of books by this author by more than seven times.
Nick Perumov.He became widely known after his first publication in 1993 of the epic "Ring of Darkness", which takes place in John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's Middle-earth. From novel to novel, Nick's style becomes more and more individual and unique, and the initial opinion of critics and him as a Tolkienist has remained in the past. The best books of Perumov and his series are included in the treasury of Russian science fiction literature: Chronicles of Hjervard, Chronicles of the Rift, Soul Thieves, Black Blood and many others.
Andrey Rubanov.Fate was not easy: he had to work as a driver and bodyguard in the difficult 90s, live in the Chechen Republic at the height of the military campaign. But this gave him the necessary life experience and helped him successfully start his journey in literature. The most flattering reviews deserved the works that are rightly included in the list of the best science fiction books: "Chlorophilia", "Plant and it will grow", "The Living Earth".
Max Fry.The author's genre is urban fantasy. Her books are for people who have not lost faith in fairy tales. Stories about ordinary life and a light style can capture any reader. An attractive contrast makes the image of the protagonist popular and extraordinary: male external role and behavior and female motives for actions, a way of describing and evaluating what is happening. Among the popular works: "The Power of the Unfulfilled (collection)", "Volunteers of Eternity", "Obsession", "Simple Magical Things", "Dark Side", "Stranger".
These are far from all the names of modern Russian literature. The world of domestic works is diverse and fascinating. Read, learn, discuss - live in step with the times!
The best modern prose books of autumn 2018
Our rating of the top 100 best modern books turned out to be quite diverse and brought a lot of new works. It includes books that are recognized all over the world and have received numerous awards, as well as works that have become popular thanks to the Internet. Our list of the best modern books includes all the books that you were looking for in the fall of 2018 on the Internet. And that is why we are sure that only the best modern books are collected here. And we really hope that our list of modern prose will help you find works worthy of your attention.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
After the collapse of the USSR, its successor Russia went through several very difficult years, which led to negative consequences, including the depreciation of writing and a sharp change in the taste of many readers. Low-grade detective stories, tearful-sentimental novels, etc. have become in demand.
Until relatively recently, science fiction was very popular. Now, some readers prefer the fantasy genre, where the plot of the works is based on fabulous, mythological motifs. In Russia, the most famous writers working in this genre are S.V. Lukyanenko (most of all his fans are attracted by a series of novels about the so-called "watches" - "Night Watch", "Day Watch", "Twilight Watch", etc.), V.V. Kamsha (cycles of novels "Chronicles of Artia", "Reflections of Eterna") and other works). Mention should also be made of N.D. Perumov (pseudonym - Nick Perumov), the author of the epic "The Ring of Darkness" and many other works. Although after the economic crisis of 1998, Nick Perumov moved with his family to the United States.
The most famous Russian detective writers
The cycle of novels about the amateur detective Erast Fandorin, created by the writer G.Sh. Chkhartishvili (creative pseudonym - Boris Akunin). For the first time, Fandorin appears in the novel Azazel as a very young man, a petty official who, thanks to the will of fate and his brilliant abilities, attacks the trail of a powerful conspiratorial organization. Subsequently, the hero steadily rises in rank and takes part in the investigation of more and more complex cases that threaten the very existence of the Russian Empire.
The so-called genre has a huge readership, which fall into the most ridiculous, tragicomic circumstances and unravel crimes (often unwittingly). In this genre, the undisputed leader is the writer A.A. Dontsova (pseudonym - Daria Dontsova), who created several hundred works. Although critics almost unanimously believe that quantity has gone to the detriment of quality, and that most of these books cannot be called literature, Dontsova's work has many admirers. There are many other popular ones in this genre, for example, Tatyana Ustinova.
» Jonathan Franzen, author of "Corrections" and "Freedom" - family sagas that have become events in world literature. On this occasion, book critic Lisa Birger compiled a brief educational program on the main prose writers of recent years - from Tartt and Franzen to Houellebecq and Eggers - who wrote the most important books of the 21st century and deserve to be called new classics.
Lisa Birger
Donna Tartt
One novel in ten years - such is the productivity of the American novelist Donna Tartt. So her three novels - "The Secret History" in 1992, "The Little Friend" in 2002 and "Goldfinch" in 2013 - this is a whole bibliography, a dozen articles in newspapers and magazines will be added to it at most. And this is important: Tartt is not just one of the main authors since the novel "The Goldfinch" won the Pulitzer Prize and demolished all the top lines of all the world's bestseller lists. She is also a novelist, keeping an exceptional fidelity to the classical form.
Starting with his first novel, The Secret History, about a group of antique students overindulged in literary games, Tartt brings the hulking genre of the big novel into the light of modernity. But the present is reflected here not in details, but in ideas - for us, today's people, it is no longer so important to know the name of the killer or even to reward the innocent and punish the guilty. We just want to open our mouths and froze in surprise, to watch how the gears turn.
What to read first
After the success of The Goldfinch, its heroic translator Anastasia Zavozova retranslated Donna Tartt's second novel, The Little Friend, into Russian. The new translation, freed from the mistakes of the past, finally pays tribute to this spellbinding novel, whose main character goes too far to investigate the murder of her little brother, is both a horror tale of the mysteries of the South and a harbinger of the future boom of the young adult genre.
Donna Tart"Little friend",
Buy
Who is close in spirit
Donna Tartt is often ranked with another savior of the great American novel, Jonathan Franzen. For all their obvious difference, Franzen turns his texts into a persistent commentary on the state of modern society, and Tartt is quite indifferent to modernity - both of them feel like the successors of the classic great novel, feel the connection of the centuries and build it for the reader.
Zadie Smith
English novelist, about whom in the English-speaking world there is much more noise than in the Russian-speaking one. At the beginning of the new millennium, it was she who was considered the main hope of English literature. Like so many modern British writers, Smith belongs to two cultures at once: her mother is from Jamaica, her father is English, and it was the search for identity that became the main theme of her first novel, White Teeth, about three generations of three British blended families. "White Teeth" is notable primarily for Smith's ability to abandon judgments, not to see the tragedy in the inevitable clash of irreconcilable cultures and at the same time the ability to sympathize with this other culture, not to despise it - although this confrontation itself becomes an inexhaustible source of her caustic wit.
In her second novel, On Beauty, the collision of two professors turned out to be just as irreconcilable: one is a liberal, the other is a conservative, and both are studying Rembrandt. Perhaps it is the conviction that there is something that unites us all, despite differences, whether it be favorite paintings or the ground we walk on, that distinguishes Zadie Smith's novels from hundreds of similar identity seekers.
What to read first
Unfortunately, Smith's latest novel, "Northwest" ("NW"), was never translated into Russian, and it is not known what will happen to the new book "Swing Time", which will be released in English in November. Meanwhile, "North-West" is, perhaps, the most successful and, perhaps, even the most understandable book for us about collisions and differences. In the center is the story of four friends who grew up together in the same neighborhood. But someone managed to achieve money and success, but someone did not. And the further, the more socio-cultural differences become an obstacle to their friendship.
Zadie Smith"NW"
Who is close in spirit
Who is close in spirit
Next to Stoppard one is drawn to put some great figure of the last century like Thomas Bernhard. After all, his dramaturgy is, of course, very much connected with the 20th century and the search for answers to difficult questions posed by his dramatic history. In fact, Stoppard's closest relative in literature - and no less dear to us - is Julian Barnes, in which, in the same way, through the connections of times, the life of the timeless spirit is built. Nevertheless, the confused patter of Stoppard's characters, his love of absurdism and attention to the events and heroes of the past are reflected in modern drama, which should be sought in the plays of Maxim Kurochkin, Mikhail Ugarov, Pavel Pryazhko.
Tom Wolfe
The legend of American journalism - his "Candy-colored orange-petal streamlined baby", published in 1965, is considered the beginning of the "new journalism" genre. In his first articles, Woolf solemnly proclaimed that the right to observe and diagnose society now belonged to journalists, not novelists. After 20 years, he himself wrote his first novel, The Bonfires of Ambition, and today, 85-year-old Wolfe is still cheerful and throws himself at American society with the same fury to tear it to shreds. However, in the 60s, he just didn’t do this, then he was still fascinated by eccentrics going against the system, from Ken Kesey with his drug experiments to the guy who invented a giant lizard costume for himself and his motorcycle. Now Wolfe himself has become this anti-systemic hero: a Southern gentleman in a white suit with a wand, despising everyone and everything, deliberately ignoring the Internet and voting for Bush. His main idea - everything around is so crazy and crooked that it is already impossible to choose a side and take this curvature seriously - should be close to many.
It's hard to miss The Bonfires of Ambition - a great novel about New York in the 80s and the clash of the black and white worlds, the most decent translation of Wolfe into Russian (the work of Inna Bershtein and Vladimir Boshnyak). But you can't call it simple reading. The reader who is not at all familiar with Tom Wolfe should read "Battle for Space", a story about the Soviet-American space race with its dramas and human casualties, and the latest novel "Voice of Blood" (2012) about the life of modern Miami. Wolfe's books once sold in the millions, but his latest novels have not been as successful. And yet, for a reader who is not weighed down by memories of Wolfe of better times, this criticism of everything should make a stunning impression.
Who is close in spirit
The New Journalism, unfortunately, gave birth to a mouse - on the field where Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and many others once ran rampant, only Joan Didion and the New Yorker magazine, which still prefers emotional stories in present tense in the first person. But the comics became the real successors of the genre. Joe Sacco and his graphic reports (so far only Palestine has been translated into Russian) - the best of what literature has managed to replace free journalistic chatter.
Leonid Yuzefovich
In the minds of the mass reader, Leonid Yuzefovich remains the man who invented the genre of historical detective stories, which has so comforted us in recent decades - his books about the detective Putilin came out even earlier than Akunin's stories about Fandorin. It is noteworthy, however, not that Yuzefovich was the first, but that, as in his other novels, a real person becomes the hero of detectives, the first head of the detective police of St. written) were published as early as the beginning of the 20th century. Such accuracy and attentiveness to real characters is a hallmark of Yuzefovich's books. His historical fantasies do not tolerate lies, and they do not appreciate fiction. Here, starting from the first success of Yuzefovich, the novel "The Autocrat of the Desert" about Baron Ungern, published in 1993, there will always be a real hero in real circumstances, speculated only where there are blind spots in the documents.
However, in Leonid Yuzefovich, what is important for us is not so much his loyalty to history as the idea of how this history grinds absolutely all of us: whites, reds, yesterday and the day before yesterday, tsars and impostors, everyone. The further in our time, the more clearly the historical course of Russia is felt as inevitable, and the more popular and significant is the figure of Yuzefovich, who has been talking about this for 30 years.
What to read first
First of all - the last novel "Winter Road" about the confrontation in Yakutia in the early 20s of the white general Anatoly Pepelyaev and the red anarchist Ivan Strod. The clash of armies does not mean a clash of characters: they are united by common courage, heroism, even humanism, and, ultimately, a common destiny. And now Yuzefovich was the first who was able to write the history of the Civil War without taking sides.
Leonid Yuzefovich"Winter road"
Who is close in spirit
The historical novel has found fertile ground in Russia today, and a lot of good things have grown on it over the past ten years - from Alexei Ivanov to Evgeny Chizhov. And even if Yuzefovich turned out to be a pinnacle that cannot be taken, he has wonderful followers: for example, Sukhbat Aflatuni(under this pseudonym the writer Yevgeny Abdullaev is hiding). His novel "The Adoration of the Magi" about several generations of the Triyarsky family is about the complex connections of the eras of Russian history, and about the strange mysticism that unites all these eras.
Michael Chabon
An American writer whose name we will never learn to pronounce correctly (Shibon? Chaybon?), so we will stick to the mistakes of the first translation. Growing up in a Jewish family, Chabon heard Yiddish from childhood and, along with what normal boys usually feed on (comics, superheroes, adventures, you might add), he was fed by the sadness and doom of Jewish culture. As a result, his novels are an explosive mixture of everything that we love. There is Yiddish charm and the historical heaviness of Jewish culture, but all this is combined with entertainment of the truest kind: from noir detectives to escapist comics. This combination turned out to be quite revolutionary for American culture, clearly sawing the audience on smart and fools. In 2001, the author received the Pulitzer Prize for his most famous novel, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, in 2008, the Hugo Award for The Union of Jewish Policemen, and since then somehow calmed down, which is a shame: it seems that Chabon's main word in literature has not yet been said. His next book, Moonlight, will be released in English in November, but it's not so much a novel as an attempt to document the biography of an entire century through the story of the writer's grandfather told to his grandson on his deathbed.
Chabon's most deservedly famous text is "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" about two Jewish cousins who invented the superhero Escapist in the 40s of the last century. An escapist is a kind of Houdini on the contrary, saving not himself, but others. But miraculous salvation can only exist on paper.
Another well-known text by Chabon, The Union of Jewish Policemen, goes even further into the genre of alternative history - here the Jews speak Yiddish, live in Alaska and dream of returning to the Promised Land, which never became the State of Israel. Once upon a time, the Coens dreamed of making a film based on this novel, but for them there is probably too little irony in it - but just right for us.
Michael Chabon"The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay"
Who is close in spirit
Perhaps it is Chabon and his complex search for the right intonation for talking about escapism, roots, and one's own identity that are to be thanked for the emergence of two brilliant American novelists. This Jonathan Safran Foer with his novels "Full Illumination" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" - about a journey to Russia in the footsteps of a Jewish grandfather and about a nine-year-old boy who is looking for his father who died on September 11th. AND Juneau Diaz with the intoxicating text "The Short Fantastic Life of Oscar Wao" about a gentle fat man who dreams of becoming a new superhero, or at least a Dominican Tolkien. He will not be able to do this because of the family curse, the dictator Trujillo and the bloody history of the Dominican Republic. Both Foer and Diaz, by the way, unlike poor Chabon, are perfectly translated into Russian - but, like him, they explore the dreams of escapism and the search for identity of not the second, but, say, the third generation of emigrants.
Michel Houellebecq
If not the main one (the French would argue), then the most famous French writer. We kind of know everything about him: he hates Islam, is not afraid of sex scenes and constantly claims the end of Europe. In fact, Houellebecq's ability to construct dystopias is polished from novel to novel. It would be dishonest for the author to see in his books only a momentary criticism of Islam or politics or even Europe - society, according to Houellebecq, is doomed for a long time, and the causes of the crisis are much worse than any external threat: it is the loss of personality and the transformation of a person from a thinking reed into a set of desires and functions.
What to read first
If we assume that the reader of these lines never discovered Houellebecq, then it’s worth starting not even with the famous dystopias like “Platform” or “Submission”, but with the novel “Map and Territory”, which received the Goncourt Prize in 2010, an ideal commentary on modern life, from its consumerism to its art.
Michel Houellebecq"Map and Territory"
Who is close in spirit
In the genre of dystopia, Houellebecq has wonderful associates among, as they say, living classics - an Englishman Martin Amis(also repeatedly opposed Islam, which requires a total loss of personality from a person) and a Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, interfering with genres for the persuasiveness of its dystopias.
A wonderful rhyme to Houellebecq can be found in the novels Dave Eggers who spearheaded a new wave of American prose. Eggers began with huge size and ambition with a coming-of-age novel and new prose manifesto, The Heartbreaking Work of a Stunning Genius, founded several literary schools and magazines, and in Lately pleases readers with biting dystopias, such as The Sphere, a novel about an Internet corporation that has taken over the world to such an extent that its employees themselves are horrified by what they have done.
Jonathan Coe
A British writer who brilliantly continues the traditions of English satire, no one knows how to smash modernity to shreds with pinpoint blows. His first major success was What a Swindle (1994), about the dirty secrets of an English family from the time of Margaret Thatcher. With an even greater sense of poignant recognition, we read the duology "The Cancer Club" and "The Circle Is Closed" about three decades of British history, from the 70s to the 90s, and how modern society became what it has become.
The Russian translation of Number 11, the sequel to What a Swindle, which takes place in our time, will be released early next year, but we still have a lot to read: Coe has a lot of novels, almost all of them have been translated into Russian. They are united by a strong plot, impeccable style and everything that is commonly called writing skills, which in the reader's language means: you take the first page and do not let go until the last.
What to read first
. If Coe is compared to Lawrence Stern, then Coe next to him will be Jonathan Swift, even with his midgets. Among the most famous books of Self are “How the Dead Live” about an old woman who died and ended up in parallel London, and the novel “The Book of Dave”, never published in Russian, in which the diary of a London taxi driver becomes a Bible for the tribes that inhabited the Earth later 500 years after the ecological catastrophe.Antonia Byatt
The philological grand dame, who received the Order of the British Empire for her novels, it seemed that Antonia Byatt always existed. In fact, Possessing was only published in 1990, and today it is being studied in universities. Byatt's main skill is the ability to talk to everyone about everything. All plots, all themes, all eras are connected, a novel can be simultaneously romantic, love, detective, chivalrous and philological, and according to Byatt one can really study the state of minds in general - her novels somehow reflected every topic that interested humanity in the last couple of hundred centuries.
In 2009, Antonia Byatt's "Children's Book" lost the Booker Prize to "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel, but this is a case in which history will remember the winners. In some ways, The Children's Book is a response to the boom in children's literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. Byatt noticed that all the children for whom these books were written either ended badly or lived an unhappy life, like Christopher Milne, who until the end of his days could not hear about Winnie the Pooh. She came up with a story about children living on a Victorian estate and surrounded by fairy tales that a writer-mother comes up with for them, and then bam - and the First World War begins. But if her books were described so simply, then Byatt would not be herself - there are a thousand characters, a hundred microplots, and fairy tale motifs are intertwined with the main ideas of the century.
Sarah Waters. Waters began with erotic Victorian novels with a lesbian twist, but ended up with historical love books in general - no, not romance novels, but an attempt to unravel the mystery of human relationships. Her best book to date, The Night Watch, showed people who found themselves under the London bombings of World War II and immediately lost. Otherwise, Byett's favorite theme of the connection between man and time is explored by Keith Atkinson- the author of excellent detective stories, whose novels "Life after life" and "Gods among men" try to embrace the entire British twentieth century at once.Cover: Beowulf Sheehan/Roulette
