(2008)

David Benioff

The X-Men and Troy screenwriter, married to actress Amanda Peet, wrote a fantasy story about a teenager and a soldier crawling behind a cordon to get a dozen eggs to the head of the Leningrad NKVD. Benioff’s fiction doesn’t pretend for a second to be something more: criminals and cannibals walk across the pages, blood flows in fountains and limbs fall in hail minor characters. But we are immensely grateful to the author for how delicately he inserted one of the difficult pages of Russian history into the Hollywood canon.

Quote:“Only now I realized that the captain has false teeth - a bridge covering almost the entire upper jaw. He was probably tortured. Well, yes. They dragged him into one of the purges, called him a Trotskyist, a white henchman, or a fascist, pulled his teeth out of his mouth, beat him until his eyes bled, pissed and shit with blood, and then an order came from some office in Moscow: we will rehabilitate this man, let him out, he’s ours again.”

2. "White on black"

(2002)

Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego

An autobiographical book about the life of a disabled child in a Soviet orphanage seems non-fiction, but in fact Gallego masterfully manipulates the reader’s emotions - at the very beginning he thanks the nannies for their honesty, who said “I wish you would die soon.” Sentimentality aside, the main thing is the science of surviving at any cost.

Quote:"I am a hero. It's easy to be a hero. If you don't have arms or legs, you are a hero or a dead man. If you don't have parents, rely on your own hands and feet. And be a hero. If you have neither arms nor legs, and you also managed to be born an orphan, that’s it. You are doomed to be a hero for the rest of your days. Or die."

3. "Librarian"

(2007)

Mikhail Elizarov

The entire book balances between two poles of enthusiastic nostalgia: for the Soviet understandable past and for the sacred role of the book, lost in that very past. Elizarov tries to dilute his nostalgia with irony and even buffoonery.

Quote:“Growing up, I loved the Union not for what it was, but for what it could have become if circumstances had been different. And is a potentially good person so guilty that, due to the difficulties of life, his wonderful qualities were not revealed?”

4. "Voroshilovgrad"

(2012)

Sergey Zhadan

An amazing novel whose hero returns to hometown to defend a gas station from the local mafia, and finds the meaning of life in simply standing on his own land, protecting his women and his homes from strangers. This is the formula that Prilepin is chasing, but Zhadan manages to organically and simply remind the reader what it means to be a man. At the same time, he rehabilitates the nineties - in his story, the era of wild capitalism was a time when people held each other so tightly that they merged into a single whole.

Quote:“The soils are exhausted by grass and trees, lying under flat skies like forgotten cattle. If you choose the right place, sometimes you can feel all this at once - how, say, roots are intertwined, how rivers flow, how the ocean is filled, how planets fly across the sky, how the living move on earth, how the dead move in the other world.”

5. "The Heart of Parma"

(2003)

Aleksey Ivanov

In the story of Moscow's conquest of Perm in the 15th century, Ivanov is all blood, guts and carnage, following a code of violence and cruelty that, according to Sorokin, is key to Russian culture. But from blood an empire is born.

Quote:“Permyaks were baptized willingly: they bathed in Kolva, put on crosses, and bowed to icons. “A Russian friend is a strong friend,” they said. “We will honor his god.”

6. "Don't Let Me Go"

(2005)

Kazuo Ishiguro

The only novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that is close to science fiction is about how in the near future people raise clones for themselves to serve as organ donors, and how society decided to try to be more humane and arranged for clone children private school and some semblance of childhood.

Quote:“...none of you will go to America, none of you will become a movie star. And none of you will work in a supermarket - I heard some people sharing plans with each other the other day. How your life will go is known in advance. You will grow up, but before you grow old, even before you reach middle age, they will start taking your internal organs for transplantation.”

7. "Limonov"

(2011)

Emmanuel Carrer

The biography of the Russian writer and rebel, which almost won the Goncourt award and is incredibly popular in France, has little in common with the portrait of Limonov that we learned from his books. For Carrère, this is more of a story of male failure, or even an answer to the question of whether modern world man, with early years dreamed of a romantic biography, to grow into a real hero.

Quote:“...One of his talents is that he knows how to keep up with fashion and from now on he will not miss a single opportunity to tell how he was put in a straitjacket and how his bedmate, drooling, jerked off his round for days."

8. "Millennium"

(2005–2007)

Stieg Larsson

Larsson, who never lived to see the great fame of his novels, foresaw it. He was a socialist and a leftist, and not a journalist chasing money, and the purpose of the ten-volume work he conceived was to describe everything European world with all its vicious mechanics.

Quote:“It’s not her fault that her father turned out to be a pathological sadist and murderer. It's not her fault that her brother is a professional killer. She didn't kill Dag Svensson and Mia Bergman. And she was not the one who appointed herself a guardian, who turned out to be a brute and a rapist.”

9. “Benefactors”

(2006)

Jonathan Littell

American Jonathan Littell wrote a novel telling the story of World War II from the point of view of SS officer Maximilian Aue, in French, while sitting in Moscow. Littell is fascinated by the mechanism thanks to which, like a jack-in-the-box, such an Aue can jump out of anyone.

Quote:“I have nothing to regret: I just did my job, and family matters - I’ll probably talk about them too - concern only me. Yes, in the end, of course, I did a lot of things, but I was no longer myself, as if I had lost my balance, and the whole world around me was shaking; I’m not the only one whose mind was clouded at that moment, you’ll agree.”

10. "The Road"

(2006)

Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy greeted the 21st century with the status of an absolute American classic, and The Road, released in 2006, could not add anything to this. Nevertheless, this is his main masterpiece and the most important book of the decade about how even in the most monstrous future there is a smoldering light at the end of the road. A father and son wander across the scorched earth of the Holocaust, hoping only to survive. The appearances of hellish monsters and scenes of eating babies are frightening, but the novel itself is piercingly, to the point of tears, optimistic.

Quote:“Everything you remember now will stay with you forever. Think about it carefully." - “But sometimes something is forgotten?” - “Yes, you will forget what you want to remember, and you will remember what you would like to forget.”

11. "When I Was Real"

(2005)

Tom McCarthy

Something uncertain falls from the sky on the hero - and after leaving the hospital he is left with more than eight million pounds in compensation. The hero decides to spend the sudden money on becoming “real”: reconstructing places and events, he lives them as if in slow motion.

Quote:“I have always been unreal. Even before the accident, if I had been walking down the street, just like De Niro, smoking a cigarette like him, and even if it had lit on the first try, I would still have thought: “Here I am, walking down the street, smoking a cigarette, like in the movies.” . Do you understand?

12. "Sankya"

(2006)

Zakhar Prilepin

The novel about the National Bolshevik, who seeks the truth with words and fists, cannot be deleted from the list of important Russian books of the century, especially after the theatrical production by Kirill Serebrennikov, which received the Golden Mask, added weight to it. It was Prilepin who managed to introduce into the mass consciousness the idea that something still needs to be done.

Quote:“The city turned out to be weak, like a toy - and breaking it was as pointless as breaking a toy: there was nothing inside - only plastic emptiness. But that’s why a childish feeling of triumph arose, a tart feeling of overcoming.”

13. "White Teeth"

(2000)

Zadie Smith

The debut of 25-year-old Zadie Smith about the life of three generations of immigrants in London is now considered almost the main British book of the decade. With talent and wit, Smith writes about the futile attempts of strangers to assimilate, preserving their own culture - but, once on a foreign land, the heroes are forever doomed to hang around somewhere in between. It quite reliably describes how an immigrant living freely on benefits reaches terror and radical organizations.

Quote:“The burqa gives true freedom. Look: “Free from the shackles of the lustful male gaze and imposed standards of attractiveness, a woman chooses what she wants to be.”

14. “Day of the Oprichnik”

(2006)

Vladimir Sorokin

The picture of the unhappy future of Russia described by Sorokin is getting closer - although in 2006 I didn’t want to think that the terrible mixture of Orthodoxy, Chineseism, Lubyanka and lubok could be anything more than an artistic fiction.

Quote:“For the refined sugar of the Kremlin, for the sovereign eagles, for the flag, for the relics of Russian rulers, buried in the Arkhangelsk Cathedral, for the sword of Rurik, for the Monomakh cap, for the Tsar Cannon, for the Tsar Bell, for the paving stones of Red Square, for the Assumption Cathedral, for The Kremlin towers are not a pity to lay down your life. And for our Sovereign, we don’t even feel sorry for another life.”

15. "Stone Bridge"

(2009)

Alexander Terekhov

An immense mockumentary novel, the main plot of which is the love tragedy of two Soviet teenagers, children of party functionaries in 1943 - supposedly a boy killed a girl because of unhappy love. There are many things that prevent The Stone Bridge from being the book of the decade - from the goofy sex scenes to the author's heavy contempt for the characters - but the book is still important because it proves how the recent past begins to stink once you stir it up.

Quote:“...the fathers became iron and lost their language, their personal lives, ascended and walked through the air, leaving no traces of ink, but the children of painters, students of the unpunished 175th school grew up the way they had to grow: they were not afraid of camps, policemen and hunger , sent honest letters without knowing censorship, kept diaries without concealment, imitated morals from trophy tapes in ancient Roman history - heroes win and rise above the mob..."

16. "Daniel Stein, translator"

(2006)

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Based on the real biography of Oswald Rufeisen, the novel about a Holocaust survivor who became a Catholic monk in Israel hit a Russian nerve: criticized by critics for its directness, for ordinary readers the book became an important text about what every person should do with his life. So important that a piece of “Daniel Stein” is felt today in every new hospice that opens, every trip to an orphanage, every, even the smallest, advance in the theory of small things.

Quote:“Each person must seek his own path to God. This path is personal, otherwise we are not a community of volunteers in the Lord, but an army with a general at its head.”

17. "Island Opportunity"

(2005)

Michel Houellebecq

Houellebecq simultaneously describes the present, in which the end of civilization has come and there is no hope, and the future, scorched by nuclear war, in which a loophole suddenly opens up. new life. As a true European, and also a hedonist, Houellebecq, predicting the end of everything, cannot attack society with final criticism - the apocalyptic dystopia here is unexpectedly optimistic.

Editorial BBC Culture critics conducted a large-scale survey among world literary critics. Renowned book editors and journalists were asked to name the best novels of the 21st century published after January 1, 2000. Critics called 196 best books of our time. Among them, 12 novels were selected for which they received the most votes.

British writer Hillary Mantel's saga about one of the interpretations of 16th-century events from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell (with Henry VIII as a supporting character) won the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, was adapted for the theater and filmed as a mini-series by the BBC. “An extremely fine translation of a story that has been told many times before, illustrated with impeccable examination of the authority due to the rise of Thomas Cromwell,” notes Karen R Long, editor of the Seattle Times. “I have never been so immersed in the thoughts of a character, regardless of time and place,” added Well Read TV editor Mary Ann Gwinn.

Marilane Robinson "Gilead", 2004

Another Pulitzer Prize winner is in the name of Rea John Emzao, a minister from a small town in Iowa. He talks about his life and anti-slavery tradition to his son in very lyrical language. This book is the first of Robinson's trilogy, along with "Home" and "Lila". “I don’t know of a better contemporary novelist who has written more seriously and deeply about religious faith, which has become almost a taboo subject in modern literature,” comments critic Dawn Raffel.

“Robinson is both a writer of ideas and a remarkable stylist of prose, exploring complex issues within the intimate spaces of family and community. She's also a very good storyteller,” adds Karen R. Long, manager of the Anisfield-Wolf book awards. This humble story of several generations inspires desire and makes spiritual life possible in the 21st century as one of the miracles. Critics are convinced that Gilead will still be read in 100 years.

Jonathan Franzen "Amendments", 2001

A multi-generational saga on the brink, winner of the US National Book Award, it was one of the first novels of the millennium to capture the zeitgeist. Alfred and Enid Lambert and their three children try to get together for Christmas in the late 20th century. Dad's Parkinson's disease is progressing, and the United States is on the verge of an economic crisis.

"Franzen's extraordinary third novel is a marvel of voices, characters and storytelling that is both epic and intimate," says New York Times columnist Carmela Chiararu. "Franzen secures his place as America's premier writer," said Laurie Goertzel, editor-in-chief of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. This big, sprawling, complete novel touches on some of the most... important topics the first years of this millennium, in particular the economy, conflict between parents and adult children, and the aging of society in particular.

Michael Chabon "The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay", 2000

1939, Joe Kavalier, a Houdini-type artist, escapes Nazi-occupied Prague and ends up in New York. Together with his Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay, he invents the superhero Escapist and begins the golden era of comics. “Chabon's novels are big, thick, and full of stories, beautifully written, and emotionally rich, as well as historically and morally profound,” says Booklist editor Donna Seaman.

This novel may also be a bridge between the 20th and 21st centuries in the perspective of World War II and the birth of superheroes and comic books, potential mythologized heroes for the mass reader. Chabon's novels have influenced other literary works of the 21st century. But most notable among them is The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, a timeless exploration of our penchant for war and hatred, our need for stories, and the existence of a magical superpower.

Jennifer Egan "A Visit from the Goon Squad" , 2010

Reflections on Time, Glory, and Music in the Style of Proust won the National Book Critics Circle and a Pulitzer Prize. “Time is a tricky thug, something that you constantly ignore because you're so busy that you don't have time for the thugs that are right in front of you,” says Egan. It builds a narrative around punk rocker producer Benny Salazar, his thieving assistant Sasha and a circle of scoffers, fallen people and parasites. Colette Bancroft, book editor of The Tampa Bay Times, gives Egan first place not only because she is beautifully written in an experimental style, but also because the 21st century is the main theme of the novel. Egan juxtaposes literary plots, the inexorable journey from youth to aging, exploring the ways in which human experience rapidly changes. This novel is prophetic, strange, wise, and just a great read. In Ukraine, the novel was published in translation by Sofia Andrukhovich.

Ben Fountain "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk", 2012

The debut novel, a winner of the National Book Critics Circle award, is distinguished from others by its “wise and sincere fun,” says critic Stephen J. Kelman. Eight American recruits, fresh from a shootout in Iraq that left one of their comrades dead and another disabled, become television heroes on the Fox News Channel. Their two-week tour ends with fireworks after the first half at a Dallas Cowboys game. Fountain touches on themes of Texas excess, college football, business and war, and lets us hear the 19-year-old narrator, Billy Lynn, with a mixture of lust, blindness and PTSD in his head. “It’s very strange,” says a Dallas Cowboys fan, “to be awarded for the worst day of your life.”

Ian McEwan "Redemption", 2001

McEwan's beautifully written novel tells the story of events that begin one summer day in the 30s of the 21st century, when 13-year-old Briony shows her mother the play she has just written. She was to be staged the following evening with her three cousins. That evening, Briony witnesses her 15-year-old cousin being attacked in a dark forest. She testifies that it was Robbie, her sister's boyfriend from Cambridge, and the maid's son. He goes to jail. In the second part, McEwan describes the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, and Robbie is among the survivors. Realizing that she has ruined her sister and Robbie's lives, Briony goes to work as a nurse during the bombing of London. The novel was made into a film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "Half of a Yellow Sun" , 2006

In her daring and quirky second novel, Adichie draws on her family's past to tell the story of Nigeria's civil war, and how the Igbo people decided to secede from the rest of the country in 1967. Her grandfather died in a refugee camp at that time. The story is told from the perspective of twin sisters Olanna and Kainene, and 13-year-old servant Richard, a British expatriate who is in love with Kainene. Another character is Olanna's pro-secession boyfriend. “Adichie’s novel is a tour de force, creative and intellectual,” says critic Walton Muyumba. “It’s also a serious novel about politics and love during war.”

Zadie Smith "White teeth", 2000

Smith, a 23-year-old prodigy, wowed the literary world with her first novel, which demonstrates the author's wit and range. White Teeth, which won the Whitbread and Guardian Book Awards for its debut book, is about life in London, two friends from the Second World War, Archie Jones and Samal Iqbal, and their families. The book begins with Archie, who has just divorced his second wife. He decides to commit suicide on New Year's Day 1975, in a car parked in front of a butcher shop that sells halal meat. Through vibrant scenes and characters, White Teeth tells the story of post-colonial, multicultural London in the 21st century.

Jeffrey Eugenides "Middlesex"(“The Middle Sex”), 2002

“I was born twice: first, as a girl, in Detroit, in January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August 1974." This is how Eugenides' novel begins. At 14, Calliope Stephanides realized she was suffering from a rare recessive mutation, making her a pseudohermaphrodite. Realizing that she has a “male brain,” she begins to call herself “Kal.” In very vivid language, Eugenides talks about fate and will through the example of Kal's growing up and the story of the successful entrepreneurial growth of his parents, Desdemona and Lefty. They of course also have their own genetic secret. In the end, Kal's unusual condition gives him a mythical gift - "the ability to communicate between the sexes, to see the world from the perspective of both sexes at once, and not just one separately." The Middle Sex was a critical and commercial success, winning a Pulitzer Prize and selling millions of copies worldwide.

Modern Russian literature is rich in a variety of names. Many book resources compile their own ratings of the most read authors, best-selling books, top-selling books (RoyalLib.com, bookz.ru, LitRes. Ozon.ru, Labirint.ru, Read-Gorod, LiveLib.ru). We present the “twenty” of the most popular contemporary writers in Russia, whose works can be found in the collection of the Centralized library system Volgodonsk.

Speaking about modern Russian literature, one cannot help but recall the masters of writing novels.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Bright representative Russian literature of the post-Soviet period. She began writing prose when she was already over forty. In her own words: “First I raised children, then I became a writer.” The first collection of 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 for the 1997 Booker Prize and made her truly famous. The “Big Book” prize was awarded to: the collection of stories “Our Tsar’s People”, “Daniel Stein, Translator”, which soon received bestseller status. In 2011, Ulitskaya presented the novel “The Green Tent,” which tells about dissidents and the lives of people of the “sixties” generation. The writer’s autobiographical prose and essays were included in the book “Sacred Trash,” published in 2012. Fans of the writer characterize her work exclusively as bold, subtle, and intelligent.

Dina Rubina. Critics often call her a “women's writer,” although her novel On the Sunny Side of the Street won her third Big Book Prize in 2007, when the first went to Ulitskaya's Stein. The 2004 novel “The Syndicate,” which describes the Moscow branch of the Israeli agency “Sokhnut” with a satirical intonation, quarreled her with many in Israel. But Russian readers still remain big fans of her work. The story “When Will It Snow” brought particular popularity to the author. The work went through several editions, was filmed, and played on theater stages. The writer's books are distinguished by their colorful language, colorful characters, rough sense of humor, adventurous plots and ability to speak clearly about complex problems and things. Among the latest works is the “Russian Canary” trilogy. The plot, the character of the characters, the Rubin 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. Ivanov's heroes - be they the mythical Voguls of the 15th century ("Heart of Parma"), semi-mythical raftsmen of the 18th century ("Gold of Rebellion") or mythologized modern Permians ("The Geographer Drank the Globe Away"), speak a special language and think in a special way. All works are very different, but they are united by the author’s subtle humor, which gradually turns into satire. The writer Alexey Ivanov is notable for the fact that, while emphasizing his “provincialism,” 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 received ambiguously by the reading public. Some talk about the cardboardness and lifelessness of the characters, the hackneyed nature of the criminal theme, others speak with delight 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, he was left alone with his conscience and questions. Isn't this 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 his creative career as a writer began. The title of the debut novel, “Mirror,” was presented to post-Soviet readers as “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 publications. The writer's work will appeal to those who simply love good prose. Writes in the genre of 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 Baseboard” was highly appreciated by critics and readers - a story in which the theme of growing up seems to be turned upside down and takes on the features of surreal humor! A book in which the very idea of ​​a happy childhood is parodied in a homerically funny and subtly evil way. The continuation of the now cult story was published only in 2010 under the title “The Chronicles of Razdolbay.”

Evgeny Grishkovets. He started out as a playwright and performer of his plays, but then the dramatic stage seemed not enough for him. He added music studies to this, and then turned to prose writing, releasing the novel “The Shirt.” It was followed by a second book, “Rivers.” Both works, judging by the reviews, were warmly received by readers. Short stories and collections of stories began to be published. Despite the fact that the author works very seriously on each of his works and then proudly notes that his “author’s position” in this book is not at all similar to the “author’s position” in the previous one, one gets the impression that Grishkovets, with his plays, performances, in prose and songs all his life he writes the same text of his name. And at the same time, each of his viewers/readers can say: “He wrote this directly about me.” The author’s best books: “Asphalt”, “A...a”, collections of stories “Plank” and “Traces on Me”.

Zakhar Prilepin.His name is known to the widest circle of readers. Prilepin spent his childhood and youth in the USSR, and grew up 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,” which 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 “Loyal Sons of Russia.” The writer also has the “Supernational Best” award, which is awarded for the best prose of the decade, as well as the All-China “Best Foreign Novel” award. The new novel, “The Abode,” about life in the Solovetsky special purpose camp, became a bestseller due to its historical and artistic content.

Oksana Robski.She made her debut as a writer with the novel “Casual,” which laid the foundation for the genre of “secular realism” in Russian literature. Books by Oksana Robski - “The Day of Happiness is Tomorrow”, “About LuOFF/ON”, “Oysters in the Rain”, “Casual 2. Dancing with Head and Feet”, etc. caused numerous and contradictory reviews from critics. According to some observers, the novels truthfully reproduce the atmosphere of “Rublevka” and indicate the lack of spirituality and artificiality of the world of the so-called Rublevka wives. Other critics point out numerous inconsistencies and say that Robski's works have little to do with the realities of everyday life of the business elite. The artistic merits of her works are generally assessed as low; some critics emphasize that at high artistic tasks Robski, in fact, does not pretend, but sets out the events easily, dynamically and in clear language.

Boris Akunin.Fiction writer. Akunin is a pseudonym, and not the only one. Publishes his works of art also under the names of Anna Borisova and Anatoly Brusnikin. And in life - Grigory Chkhartishvili. The author became famous for his novels and stories from the “New Detective” series (“The Adventures of Erast Fandorin”). He also created the series “Provincial Detective” (“The Adventures of Sister Pelagia”), “The Adventures of the Master”, “Genres”. In each of his “brainchild”, a creative person amazingly combines literary text with cinematic visuality. Positive reviews from readers indicate the popularity of all stories without exception.

Many readers prefer detective genres and adventure literature.

Alexandra Marinina. She is called by critics nothing less than the queen, the prima donna of the Russian detective story. Her books are read in one sitting. They are distinguished by realistic plots, which makes the reader wholeheartedly experience the events that happen to the characters, empathize with them and think about important life issues. Some of the author's new works, which have already become bestsellers: "Execution without malice", “Angels Can’t Survive on Ice,” “Last Dawn.”

Polina Dashkova.The writer gained wide fame 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” and “Cherub” were filmed. The writer's style is characterized by vivid characters, an exciting plot, and good style.

Elena Mikhalkova. Critics say she is a master of the "life" detective story. 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 one. story line. The author takes ideas for plots for his works from everyday life: a conversation with a supermarket salesperson, leaflet texts, 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: “The Whirlpool of Other People’s 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 written more than 40 novels together: “The Golden Maiden”, “Sky Island”, “The Sad Demon of Hollywood”, “Fate Has Another Name” and many others. In their reviews, readers admit that the Litvinovs are masters of intrigue and exciting plots. They harmoniously combine a mysterious crime, colorful characters and a love line in their texts.

One of the most popular literary genres among Russian readers is 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 extraordinary male heroes. After all, it is the lack of expressive male characters, according to sociologists, that is the reason that women's novels are practically absent from the domestic book market. A series of novels by A. Berseneva about several generations of the Grinev family - “An Unequal Marriage”, “The Last Eve”, “The Age of Third Love”, “The Catcher of Small Pearls”, “The First, the Accidental, the Only” - formed the basis for the multi-part television film “Captain’s Children” "

Ekaterina Vilmont. Her books are loved by readers all over Russia. She wrote her first romance novel at the age of 49 (“The Journey of an Optimist, or All Women are Fools”). Then I tried myself in the children's detective genre. In his women's novels, Vilmont reveals inner world modern, mature, independent women, capable of managing circumstances, talking about their failures and victories, tragedies and joys, and about what worries every reader - about love. Ekaterina Vilmont’s novels are full of humor, cheerfulness and witty titles: “In Search of Treasures”, “The Happiness Hormone and Other Nonsense”, “Incredible Luck”, “With all the Dope!” , "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 has been published since 2011. The writer's best books are known for their precision of detail, life-affirming mood and light humor. Reviews from her fans indicate that these books helped them find a way out of difficult life situations. Today, the list of the writer’s works includes more than 20 novels and stories. Among her latest works it is worth highlighting the following: “Our little life”, “Mistake of youth”, “The road to two streets”, “ Faithful husband", "Her Last Hero" and others.

In Russian modern science fiction there is a whole galaxy of talented writers whose names and works deserve attention.

Sergei Lukyanenko. One of the most widely circulated authors among science fiction writers. The first circulation of his book “The Last Watch” was 200 thousand copies. Films based on his novels became an important factor in increasing popularity. The release of the blockbusters “Night Watch” and “Day Watch” increased the circulation of this author’s books by more than seven times.

Nick Perumov.He gained widespread fame after his first publication in 1993 of the epic "The Ring of Darkness", set in the Middle-earth of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. 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 is a thing of the past. The best books by Perumov and his series are included in the treasury of Russian science fiction literature: “The Chronicles of Hjervard”, “Chronicles of the Rift”, “Soul Stealers”, “Black Blood” and many others.

Andrey Rubanov.His fate was not easy: he had to work as a driver and bodyguard in the difficult 90s, and 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 path in literature. The most flattering reviews were earned by the works that are rightly included in the list of the best books of the science fiction writer: “Chlorophylia”, “Plant and it will grow”, “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 captivate any reader. What makes the image of the main character popular and extraordinary is the attractive contrast: the male external role and behavior and the female motives for action, the way of describing and assessing what is happening. Among the popular works: “The Power of the Unfulfilled (collection)”, “Volunteers of Eternity”, “Obsessions”, “Simple Magical Things”, “The Dark Side”, “Stranger”.

These are not all the names of modern Russian literature. The world of Russian works is diverse and fascinating. Read, learn, discuss - live with the times!

Modern Russian writers continue to create their excellent works in the present century. They work in various genres, each of them has an individual and unique style. Some are familiar to many devoted readers from their writings. Some names are well known to everyone, as they are extremely popular and promoted. However, there are also modern Russian writers about whom you will learn for the first time. But this does not mean at all that their creations are worse. The fact is that in order to highlight true masterpieces, a certain amount of time must pass.

Modern Russian writers of the 21st century. List

Poets, playwrights, prose writers, science fiction writers, publicists, etc. continue to work fruitfully in the current century and add to the works of great Russian literature. This:

• Alexander Bushkov.
• Alexander Zholkovsky.
• Alexandra Marinina.
• Alexander Olshansky.
• Alex Orlov.
• Alexander Rosenbaum.
• Alexander Rudazov.
• Alexey Kalugin.
• Alina Vitukhnovskaya.
• Anna and Sergei Litvinov.
• Anatoly Salutsky.
• Andrey Dashkov.
• Andrey Kivinov.
• Andrey Plekhanov.
• Boris Akunin.
• Boris Karlov.
• Boris Strugatsky.
• Valery Ganichev.
• Vasilina Orlova.
• Vera Vorontsova.
• Vera Ivanova.
• Victor Pelevin.
• Vladimir Vishnevsky.
• Vladimir Voinovich.
• Vladimir Gandelsman.
• Vladimir Karpov.
• Vladislav Krapivin.
• Vyacheslav Rybakov.
• Vladimir Sorokin.
• Darya Dontsova.
• Dina Rubina.
• Dmitry Yemets.
• Dmitry Suslin.
• Igor Volgin.
• Igor Guberman.
• Igor Lapin.
• Leonid Kaganov.
• Leonid Kostomarov.
• Lyubov Zakharchenko.
• Maria Arbatova.
• Maria Semenova.
• Mikhail Weller.
• Mikhail Zhvanetsky.
• Mikhail Zadornov.
• Mikhail Kukulevich.
• Mikhail Makovetsky.
• Nick Perumov.
• Nikolai Romanetsky.
• Nikolai Romanov.
• Oksana Robski.
• Oleg Mityaev.
• Oleg Pavlov.
• Olga Stepnova.
• Sergei Magomet.
• Tatiana Stepanova.
• Tatiana Ustinova.
• Eduard Radzinsky.
• Eduard Uspensky.
• Yuri Mineralov.
• Yuna Moritz.
• Yulia Shilova.

Writers of Moscow

Modern writers (Russian) never cease to amaze with their interesting works. Separately, we should highlight the writers of Moscow and the Moscow region who are members of various unions.

Their writings are excellent. Only a certain time must pass in order to highlight real masterpieces. After all, time is the harshest critic that cannot be bribed with anything.

Let's highlight the most popular ones.

Poets: Avelina Abareli, Pyotr Akaemov, Evgeny Antoshkin, Vladimir Boyarinov, Evgenia Bragantseva, Anatoly Vetrov, Andrey Voznesensky, Alexander Zhukov, Olga Zhuravleva, Igor Irtenev, Rimma Kazakova, Elena Kanunova, Konstantin Koledin, Evgeny Medvedev, Mikhail Mikhalkov, Grigory Osipov and a lot others.

Playwrights: Maria Arbatova, Elena Isaeva and others.

Prose writers: Eduard Alekseev, Igor Bludilin, Evgeny Buzni, Genrikh Gatsura, Andrey Dubovoy, Egor Ivanov, Eduard Klygul, Yuri Konoplyannikov, Vladimir Krupin, Irina Lobko-Lobanovskaya and others.

Satirists: Zadornov.

Modern Russian writers of Moscow and the Moscow region have created: wonderful works for children, a large number of poetry, prose, fables, detective stories, fiction, humorous stories and much more.

First among the best

Tatyana Ustinova, Daria Dontsova, Yulia Shilova are modern writers(Russians), whose works are loved and read with great pleasure.

T. Ustinova was born on April 21, 1968. He treats his tall height with humor. She said that in kindergarten she was teased as "Herculesine". There were certain difficulties in this regard at school and institute. Mom read a lot as a child, which instilled in Tatyana a love of literature. It was very difficult for her at the institute, since physics was very difficult. But I managed to finish my studies, I helped future husband. I got on television completely by accident. Got a job as a secretary. But seven months later she moved up the career ladder. Tatyana Ustinova was a translator and worked in the presidential administration Russian Federation. After the change of power, she returned to television. However, I was also fired from this job. After that she wrote her first novel" Personal angel", which was immediately published. They returned to work. Things went up. She gave birth to two sons.

Outstanding satirists

Everyone is very familiar with Mikhail Zhvanetsky and Mikhail Zadornov - modern Russian writers, masters of the humorous genre. Their works are very interesting and funny. Performances by comedians are always expected; tickets to their concerts are sold out immediately. Each of them has their own image. The witty Mikhail Zhvanetsky always goes on stage with a briefcase. The public loves him very much. His jokes are often quoted because they are incredibly funny. At the Arkady Raikin Theater, great success began with Zhvanetsky. Everyone said: “as Raikin said.” But their union fell apart over time. The performer and the author, the artist and the writer, had different paths. Zhvanetsky brought with him a new literary genre, which was at first mistaken for ancient. Some are surprised why “a man without a voice and acting ability goes on stage”? However, not everyone understands that in this way the writer publishes his works, and not just performs his miniatures. And in this sense, pop music as a genre has nothing to do with it. Zhvanetsky, despite the misunderstanding on the part of some people, remains a great writer of his era.

Bestsellers

Below are Russian writers. Three interesting historical and adventure stories are included in Boris Akunin’s book “History of the Russian State. The Fiery Finger.” This is an amazing book that every reader will enjoy. Fascinating plot, bright characters, incredible adventures. All this is perceived in one breath. “Love for Three Zuckerbrins” by Victor Pelevin makes you think about the world and human life. He puts at the forefront questions that concern many people who are able and eager to think and think. His interpretation of existence corresponds to the spirit of modernity. Here myth and the tricks of creatives, reality and virtuality are closely intertwined. Pavel Sanaev's book "Bury Me Behind the Plinth" was nominated for the Booker Prize. She made a real splash on the book market. This magnificent publication occupies a place of honor in modern Russian literature. This is a true masterpiece of modern prose. Easy and interesting to read. Some chapters are full of humor, while others move you to tears.

Best Novels

Modern novels by Russian writers captivate with a new and surprising plot and make you empathize with the main characters. The historical novel “Abode” by Zakhar Prilepin touches on the important and at the same time sore subject of the Solovetsky special purpose camps. In the writer’s book, that complex and heavy atmosphere is deeply felt. Whoever she didn't kill, she made stronger. The author created his novel based on archival documentation. He skillfully inserts monstrous historical facts into the artistic outline of the essay. Many works of modern Russian writers are worthy examples, excellent creations. This is the novel “Darkness Falls on the Old Steps” by Alexander Chudakov. It was recognized as the best Russian novel by the decision of the jury of the Russian Booker competition. Many readers decided that this essay was autobiographical. The thoughts and feelings of the characters are so authentic. However, this is an image of genuine Russia in a difficult period of time. The book combines humor and incredible sadness; lyrical episodes smoothly flow into epic ones.

Conclusion

Modern Russian writers of the 21st century are another page in the history of Russian literature.

Daria Dontsova, Tatyana Ustinova, Yulia Shilova, Boris Akunin, Victor Pelevin, Pavel Sanaev, Alexander Chudakov and many others won the hearts of readers throughout the country with their works. Their novels and stories have already become real bestsellers.

10 main writers of modern Russia

When it comes to modern literature, the reader often forms his reading circle based on existing ratings. But every niche of the book market has its leaders, and none of them is an absolute literary authority. We decided to hold a kind of Russian championship among writers. From a pool of 50 different writers—from bestselling authors to darlings of intellectual criticism—we've found 10 champions through some complex calculations. These are writers who convey those ideologies that are in demand by the majority of readers and therefore are important today for the whole country

1 place

Victor Pelevin

What did you get it for?
For the painstaking and consistent decoding of the present and explanation of life new Russia through absurdity and metaphysics.

How he does it
Since his first stories, published back in the late 1980s, Pelevin has been doing the same thing: X-raying his contemporary society, revealing the “true” background of any events in the modern history of Russia.

He seems to offer us another Russia - a metaphysical, magical, absurd empire, in which “werewolves in uniform” turn into real wolf people (“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf”), cadets at the Maresyev Flight School have their legs amputated (“Omon Ra”) , instead of real politicians, the country is governed by PR people through digital characters from TV (“Generation “P”), and oil appears because the skull of a motley cow cries real tears over the bitter fate of the Russian security forces (“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf”). At the same time, Pelevin’s portrait of Russia is almost always photographically accurate: in “Chapaev and Emptiness” (1996) he gave a snapshot of the 90s with their “new Russians” and kitschy fashion for Eastern esotericism, in “Generation “P”” (1999) predicted the coming kingdom of PR and the painful search for a national idea, which we began in the 2000s.

Pelevin is the most sought-after writer in our country, where the spirit of conspiracy is still strong and many are confident that the authorities are hiding everything from them, but no one knows exactly what and how.

Points

• Awards - 3(“National bestseller”, 2004, “DPP NN” - 300 thousand rubles).
• Confession experts -5 (Pelevin’s importance for modern culture is recognized even by his consistent critics).
• Circulations - 5(since the mid-2000s, the starting circulation of his new books is about 200 thousand copies).
• Presence of fans - 5(the collective madness around Pelevin has existed for about 15 years; in 1999, a rally of his fans was even held in Moscow).
• Publicity - 3(ignores the press, gives one or two interviews a year, but is still one of the key cultural newsmakers).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(the film “Generation “P”” will be released in February 2010).
• Reputation - 5(nobody knows his political views; people of various views find confirmation of their hypotheses and guesses in his prose).
• Total 31

2nd place

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

What did you get it for?
For stating the simple truth that modern man actually not that bad.

How does she do it
Ulitskaya is most interested in people. In this sense it is unique. The focus of her attention is not on fashion, not on current politics, not on the surprises of history, but on people, our contemporaries with their shortcomings, virtues, sins, talents, faith and unbelief. She feels sincere sympathy for her heroes - something like main character the novel “Sincerely yours Shurik” feels sympathy for all women along his path.

Until 2006, Ulitskaya described simple, sometimes even average, people, showing different facets of their characters. And then from the same material she created a “superman” - translator Daniel Stein from the novel of the same name, who set the goal of his life as nothing less than the reconciliation of different nations and religions.

Points

• Awards - 5(“Russian Booker”, 2001, “Kukotsky’s Case” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2007, “Daniel Stein, translator” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 5(Ulitskaya is loved by critics of all kinds).
• Circulations - 5(“Daniel Stein, translator” - more than 400 thousand copies).
• Availability of fans - 1(Ulitskaya’s novels, as a rule, are about too intimate experiences, so her fans usually keep quiet and hide their feelings).
• Publicity - 3(does not like publicity, although he periodically gives interviews).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(film “Kukotsky’s Case” (2005) based on the book of the same name).
• Reputation - 5(chosen by Ulitskaya human theme turns out to be a universal key to the hearts of a wide variety of readers of all age groups and sometimes of opposing views).
• Total 29

3rd place

Leonid Yuzefovich

What did you get it for?
For explaining our present through the past and our past through the present.

How he does it
Yuzefovich writes historical thrillers, and in real history he finds plots that are richer and more interesting than any fiction. His books include an Esperantist conspiracy in the Urals during the Civil War; a Mongol prince trying to sell his soul to the devil; Russian impostor wandering around Europe in the 17th century. All this is a hybrid of historical reality and myths, which every time turns out to be relevant and helps the reader understand the events of today. Yuzefovich nowhere claims that history is cyclical, but at the same time, for example, the Time of Troubles from his novel “Cranes and Dwarfs” is strikingly reminiscent of the Russian 90s, and the problems of the police in Russian Empire the end of the 19th century are very similar to those that the “cops” solve today. It turns out that we have already gone through all this, but have not drawn any conclusions.

Points

• Awards - 5(“National bestseller”, 2001, “Prince of the Wind” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2009, “Cranes and Dwarfs” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 5(unanimous approval from almost all critics).
• Circulations - 3(less than 100 thousand copies).
• Availability of fans - 1(Yuzefovich’s books did not give rise to a fan movement as such; he requires the reader to think and analyze facts, and the mass audience is not always ready for this).
• Publicity - 3(doesn’t strive to become a public figure, but communicates with the press).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(film “Detective of the St. Petersburg Police” (1991) based on the story “The Situation in the Balkans”; TV series “Cazarosa” (2005) based on the novel “Espero Club”; TV series “Detective Putilin” (2007) based on the novels “Harlequin Costume”, “ House of Meetings", "Prince of the Wind").
• Reputation - 5(causes respect in different political camps - with caution and thoughtfulness of statements).
• Total 27

4th place

Vladimir Makanin

What did you get it for?
For a detailed and merciless analysis of the most painful and pressing social issues.

How he does it
Makanin keeps his own chronicle Russian life, recording and analyzing such important components as the fate of the intelligentsia (“Underground, or Hero of Our Time”) or the war in the Caucasus (“Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Asan”).

Makanin works as a mirror of Russian reality with a multiple magnification effect. This is not to say that he shows something that is not there, but not everyone likes his pictures - just as few people might like the reflection of their own face with all its pores and acne. Six months after he was awarded the Big Book Prize, the novel Asan was awarded the title of “worst book of the year” on the Internet: this happened through the efforts of veterans of the Chechen wars, who were thoroughly offended by the writer.

Makanin is sometimes accused of “cheap provocations.” Cheap or not, but “provocation” - precise definition: the writer selects the most difficult topics for society and presents their research to the reader. And then everyone is free to either be indignant that everything is so bad with us, or admire how skillfully the writer shows that everything is so bad with us.

Points

• Awards - 5(“Russian Booker”, 1993, “A table covered with cloth and with a decanter in the middle” - $10 thousand; “Big Book”, 2008, “Asan” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 4(liberal-minded critics value Makanin for his “truth of life”; patriots are indignant and accuse the writer of distorting historical facts).
• Circulations - 5(On the Sunset Soviet era Makanin was published in thousands of copies).
• Availability of fans - 1(Makanin has not acquired any fans as such, there are only loyal readers).
• Publicity - 3(does not seek publicity, but gives interviews from time to time).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(film “Heads and Tails” (1995) based on the story “In the First Breath”; film “Prisoner” (2008) based on the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus”).
• Reputation - 4(among liberals he enjoys absolute authority; for the conservative-patriotic part of society he is a liar and a provocateur).
• Total 27

5-7 place

Alexander Kabakov

What did you get it for?
For a true reflection of our fear of the future.

How he does it
Kabakov managed to capture the spirit of the times back in the late 80s, when he wrote the story “The Defector” - a dystopia that captured the premonition that was then hanging in the air civil war. For the first time in Soviet history, the future began to frighten the broad masses, and Kabakov verbalized the fear that was popular in those years: the total circulation of official publications alone exceeded 200 thousand copies.

20 years after The Defector, Kabakov again wrote a dystopian novel, The Fugitive, which takes place in 1917, in the last months of pre-Soviet Russia. It would seem that these are things of the past, why be afraid of them? But the events of 1917 turn out to be very similar to our time. And most importantly, then, and now, and 20 years ago, the future still scares us. In modern culture, Kabakov plays the role of a pessimistic reasoner who pronounces his “memento mori” (remember death) both appropriately and inappropriately.

Points

• Awards - 4(“Big Book”, 2006, “Everything Can Be Fixed” - 1.5 million rubles).
• Confession experts -4 (causes respect, but not from everyone; they often scold him).
• Circulations - 5(“Defector” - over 200 thousand copies).
• Availability of fans - 1(Kabakov has no ardent fans).
• Publicity — 3 (does not strive to become a public character, but often appears in the media).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(film “The Defector” (1991) based on the story of the same name).
• Reputation - 4(his moderate liberal and moderate conservative views both attract and repel both camps of critics).
• Total 26

5-7 place

Sergei Lukyanenko

What did you get it for?
For the popularization of conformism and traditional values.

How he does it
Like Pelevin, Lukyanenko shows the hidden mechanisms of the functioning of reality around us. In “Watches” and “Draft” you can find an explanation for a variety of events modern life, from political to everyday. But the explanations that Lukyanenko offers are much simpler than Pelevin’s: his world is Manichaean-style divided into good and evil, black and white. Moreover, each political force tends to see its opponents in the “dark” Day Watch, and itself in the “light” Night Watch.

True, sometimes it turns out that evil is not so evil, and good uses its fists for the wrong reasons. But still, against the backdrop of social postmodernism, which fundamentally does not distinguish good from evil, Lukyanenko’s prose looks like a breath of traditionalism. He continues to follow the line of Soviet science fiction, familiar to everyone from childhood. And his characters, for the most part, are conformists: even the most heroic of them every now and then stop being heroic and go with the flow. In this, the writer managed to capture the spirit of the times: the mass reader of the 2000s, a person of the era of “stability,” happily accepted this conformism, combined with the patriotic-conservative views of Lukyanenko himself.

Points

• Awards - 1(did not receive).
• Expert recognition - 3(Lukyanenko is the only science fiction writer about whom critics from outside the science fiction community regularly write. True, he is rarely praised).
• Circulations - 5(a starting circulation of 200 thousand copies for Lukyanenko’s books is common).
• Presence of fans - 5(Lukyanenko has been an idol of the masses for a good ten years; role-playing games are based on his books).
• Publicity — 3 (he doesn’t like publicity, but he appears in public and gives interviews).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(the films “Night Watch” (2004) and “Day Watch” (2006) based on the novels of the same name; the film “Aziris Nuna” (2006) based on the book “Today, Mom!”; several more films are planned).
• Reputation - 4(is an authority for a large group of adherents of traditional values ​​and “stability”; others are rather repulsed by his views).
• Total 26

5-7 place

Boris Akunin

What did you get it for?
For creating an escapist myth about the Russian Golden Age.

How he does it
The first novels about Erast Fandorin were dedicated: “To the memory of the 19th century, when literature was great, faith in progress was boundless, and crimes were committed and revealed with grace and taste.” At the end of the 90s, at the height of the revision Russian history From a new ideological position, the fiction writer Akunin began to create an escapist myth for a “smart” but not very intellectual reader - the myth of beautiful Russia at the end of the 19th century.

Akunin found an era that, on the one hand, is well known to everyone, and on the other, does not cause much controversy. From the classical language literature of the 19th century century, familiar to everyone school curriculum, from elegant detective constructions and the general good-naturedness of heroes, even negative ones, he created an ideal escapist world where one could escape from default, wars in Chechnya, politics and troubles at work. Akunin gave a whole generation of Russian office workers a safe refuge from the present.

Points

• Awards - 1(was not nominated for an award and has no chance: awards do not like entertaining literature).
• Expert recognition - 3(“intellectual” critics don’t like him, but for glossy publications he is a favorite).
• Circulations - 5(average circulation is more than 200 thousand copies).
• Presence of fans - 5(the world of Fandorin, Pelagia and other Akunin characters has been the subject of mass madness for almost ten years).
• Publicity - 3(he doesn’t like to appear in the press, but sometimes reminds himself of himself with bright media gestures: for example, an interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Esquire magazine).
• Availability of film adaptations – 5(films “Azazel” (2001), “Turkish Gambit” (2004), “State Councilor” (2005), as well as the TV series (2009) “Pelagia and the White Bulldog”).
• Reputation - 4(known as a staunch liberal, for which he is appreciated by some and hated by others).
• Total 26

8th place

Dmitry Bykov

What did you get it for?
For the ability to find a common language with everyone - regardless of beliefs, political leanings, etc.

How he does it
They once joked about Bykov that he, like gas, fills any space allotted to him. He hosts programs on radio, and until recently, on television, and publishes articles, reviews and columns in newspapers and magazines of various types. He offers poetry lovers poetry, and prose lovers novels, moreover, written in a stream fashion trends of its time. For those who don't like it fiction, there is non-fiction: biographies of Boris Pasternak and Bulat Okudzhava.

For intellectuals, Bykov paints a portrait of Okudzhava as a representative of a special Soviet aristocracy, for pessimists - a scary dystopia “Written Off” about how all kinds of people suddenly found themselves on ominous lists compiled by someone for unknown reasons. The ideal universal writer of the era of total crisis of all ideologies.

Points

• Awards - 5(“National bestseller”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 4(some critics do not like his ideological omnivorousness, but each new book by Bykov becomes an event).
• Circulations - 2(not a single book has ever been published with a circulation of more than 50 thousand copies).
• Availability of fans - 3(there is a small but well-organized fan movement and fan clubs).
• Publicity — 4 (one way or another, he is constantly present in the media: he writes columns in magazines, a program on the radio “City-FM”, and hosted the television program “Vremechko”).
• Availability of film adaptations - 1 (for now they are only being negotiated).
• Reputation - 4(Bykov could be an authoritative writer, but he is harmed by the fact that he is not “above” all sorts of ideologies, but, on the contrary, is in solidarity with any of them).
• Total 23

9-10 place

Evgeniy Grishkovets

What did you get it for?
For glorifying the joys of life and everyday life of a simple modern person.

How he does it
Lenin argued that “the electron is as inexhaustible as the atom.” Evgeny Grishkovets proves that a person - and first of all his life, daily actions and thoughts - is as inexhaustible as an electron. His stories, novels and plays are statements of the most ordinary tales, diary entries, memories of his youth, school and university years, anecdotes about neighbors, fellow travelers or casual acquaintances, which are interspersed with reflections on the meaning of existence. Readers can easily recognize themselves in all the listed stories, tales and anecdotes, and even reflection in the works of Grishkovets is quite archetypal.

At the same time, the life of an ordinary person for Grishkovets turns out to be joyful: even if there are sad episodes, they still cannot spoil the overall bright impression. All troubles are drowned in a sweetly benevolent and forgiving style of presentation. Grishkovets, like a kind storyteller, lulls the neurotic generation of 30-40 year olds who have experienced more than one crisis.

Points

• Awards - 1(didn't receive anything).
• Expert recognition - 3(critics treat him coldly, but new books are still reviewed).
• Circulations - 4(V last years average circulation is more than 100 thousand copies).
• Availability of fans - 3(there are active Grishkovets fan clubs).
• Publicity - 4(appears in the press and on television, hosted his own TV show, but ultimately considered this experience unsuccessful).
• Availability of film adaptations - 4(There are many theatrical productions based on the works of Grishkovets).
• Reputation - 3(he is not a moral authority by choice, since he prefers not to speak publicly on global issues at all).
• Total 22

9-10 place

Aleksey Ivanov

What did you get it for?
For glorifying the Russian province and equalizing its rights with the capitals.

How he does it
Ivanov opened a window to the east of Russia, giving his Perm a semi-sacred status. It is possible that it was through this window that Marat Gelman and state money for culture came to Perm.

It cannot be said that before Ivanov no one had ever written about the Russian province. For example, Leonid Yuzefovich himself lived for many years in Perm, and the action of his “Kazarosa” takes place in this city. But it was Ivanov who managed to create a persistent myth about the self-sufficiency of the province in our centripetal country, where, according to the generally accepted opinion, everything that exists strives to move to Moscow or at least to St. Petersburg.

In “The Heart of Parma” and “The Gold of Rebellion,” the Perm version of history turns out to be much more interesting than the official one, which comes from Moscow and St. Petersburg. IN official version- kings, emperors, serfdom, decrees, ministers, riots and wars, everything boring and faceless; in Perm - magic, fighting moose, siege sleighs, mysterious Voguls, beautiful rituals and great river Chusovaya.

Points

• Awards - 1(did not receive anything, although appeared on the shortlists several times).
• Expert recognition - 4(among critics, Ivanov has both ardent supporters and ardent opponents).
• Circulations - 3(average circulation no more than 100 thousand copies).
• Presence of fans - 5(the Perm public carries Ivanov in its arms, especially in his confrontation with Marat Gelman. Role-playing games are held based on his books, and in the summer of 2009 the “Heart of Parma” festival named after Ivanov was held in Perm).
• Publicity - 3(rarely leaves Perm, does not strive to become a public figure, but gives interviews).
• Availability of film adaptations - 1(negotiations are underway, but the matter has not yet reached filming).
• Reputation - 5(moral authority, has a reputation as a sage from the Ural hinterland, to whom you can turn on particularly important issues).
• Total 22

Illustrations: Maria Sosnina