This is a list of reading preferences of experts from the literary magazine The Millions, which included famous journalists, critics and writers - 56 people in total. They chose exclusively worthy of attention books of the century.

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"The Middle Sex" Jeffrey Eugenides

The life story of a hermaphrodite, sincerely and frankly told in the first person. The novel, written by Greek-American Jeffrey Eugenides in Berlin, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. The book is the story of several generations of one family through the eyes of a hermaphrodite descendant.

"The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Waugh" by Junot Diaz

The 2007 semi-autobiographical novel, written by Dominican-American Junot Diaz, tells the story of an overweight and deeply unhappy child coming of age in New Jersey and meeting his untimely death in his early youth. The work was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.

"2666" Roberto Bolaño

The posthumously published novel by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño (1953 - 2003) consists of 5 parts, which the author, for economic reasons, intended to publish as 5 independent books, in order to thus ensure the life of his children after his death. Nevertheless, after the writer’s death, the heirs determined the literary value of the work and decided to publish it as one novel.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

“Cloud Atlas” is like a mirror labyrinth, in which six voices echo and overlap each other: a mid-19th-century notary returning to the United States from Australia; a young composer forced to trade body and soul in Europe between the world wars; a journalist in 1970s California uncovering a corporate conspiracy; a small publisher - our contemporary, who managed to break the bank on the gangster autobiography “Knuckle Knuckles” and is fleeing from creditors; clone servants from the enterprise fast food in Korea - the country of victorious cyberpunk - and the Hawaiian goatherd at the end of civilization.

"The Road" Cormac McCarthy

A book by Cormac McCarthy, whose works are distinguished by tough realism and a healthy view of our human essence without masks, without hypocrisy, without any romance. A father and his little son wander through a country that has survived a monstrous catastrophe, desperately trying to survive and maintain a human appearance in a post-apocalyptic world.

"Atonement" Ian McEwan

This is a “chronicle of lost time”, striking in its sincerity, written by a teenage girl, overestimating and rethinking the events of her “adult” life in her own whimsical and childishly cruel way. Having witnessed a rape, she interprets it in her own way - and sets in motion a chain of fatal events that will come back to haunt her in the most unexpected way many, many years later.

"The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" Michael Chabon

Two Jewish youths become the kings of comics in America during World War II. With their art they try to fight the forces of evil and those who hold their loved ones in slavery and want to destroy them.

"Corrections" Jonathan Franzen

This is an ironic and deep understanding of the eternal conflict between fathers and sons in the era of the bravura “end of history,” impenetrable political correctness and the ubiquitous Internet. Following the sad and funny life collisions of the family of former railway engineer Alfred Lambert, who is slowly losing his mind, the author builds a multi-character novel about love, business, cinema, “haute cuisine”, the dizzying luxury of New York and even the lawlessness in the post-Soviet space. The book has been declared "the first great novel of the 21st century."

"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson

The novel takes place in 1956 in the town of Gilead, Iowa. The book consists of letters written in diary form by a 76-year-old priest and addressed to his 7-year-old son. Accordingly, the novel is a series of inconsistent scenes, memories, stories, and moral advice.

"White Teeth" by Zadie Smith

One of the brightest and most successful debut novels to appear in history. last years in British literature. A brilliant comic tale that tells of friendship, love, war, an earthquake, three cultures, three families over three generations and one very unusual mouse.

"Kafka on the Beach" by Haruki Murakami

At the center of the work is the fate of a teenager who ran away from home from the gloomy prophecy of his father. The amazing fates of the heroes, residents of Japan in the second half of the 20th century, are influenced by prophecies, messengers from the other world and cats.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Amir and Hassan were separated by an abyss. One belonged to the local aristocracy, the other to a despised minority. One's father was handsome and important, the other's was lame and pitiful. One was a voracious reader, the other was illiterate. Everyone could see Hassan's harelip, but Amir's ugly scars were hidden deep inside. But you can't find people closer than these two boys. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of a Kabul idyll, which will soon give way to menacing storms. The boys are like two paper kites that were caught by this storm and scattered in different directions. Each has their own destiny, their own tragedy, but, as in childhood, they are connected by the strongest ties.

"Don't Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

The most astonishing English novel of 2005 from Japanese-born graduate of the Malcolm Bradbury Literary Seminar, winner of the Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day. 30-year-old Katie recalls her childhood at the exclusive Hailsham school, full of strange omissions, half-hearted revelations and latent threats. This is a parable novel, a story of love, friendship and memory, the ultimate embodiment of the metaphor “to serve with your whole life.”

"Austerlitz" W. G. Sebald

Jacques Austerlitz, who devoted his life to studying the structure of fortresses, palaces and castles, suddenly realizes that he knows nothing about his personal history, except that in 1941 he, a five-year-old boy, was taken to England. And now, decades later, he rushes around Europe, sits in archives and libraries, bit by bit building within himself his own “museum of lost things,” “a personal history of disasters.”

"Empire Falls" Richard Russo

A novel by Richard Russo, in a comedic vein, it tells the story of the blue-collar life of the small town of Empire Falls, Maine. Main character— Miles Robey, manager of the bar and grill, which has been considered the most popular establishment in this place for 20 years.

"Runaway" by Alice Munro

A collection of stories by the famous Canadian writer, based on which films are made in Hollywood, and in 2004 the book received the Giller Prize.

"The Master" Colm Toibin

Irish writer Colm Tóibín's The Master, which tells the story of the famous 19th-century novelist and critic Henry James, has won the world's largest literary prize for a work of fiction. English language.

"Half of a Yellow Sun" by Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda

Full of intense drama, the novel tells the stories of several people - stories that are intertwined in the most amazing way. Readers called Adichie’s novel “the African Kite Runner,” and British critics awarded it the prestigious Orange Prize.

"Uncommon Earth" by Jhumpa Lairi

No Ordinary Earth is a book by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lairi. In it, the author continues the theme of Indian emigrants, which she began in her first book, “Interpreter of Maladies.”

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Suzanne Clarke

Magical England of the Napoleonic Wars. England, in which wizards are in the secret service of the government and defend the British Empire in their own ways. But, fighting the “ordinary” enemy and using their strength as another weapon in the “human” war, the wizards forgot about their true, eternal enemy and adversary - Ancient People, remembering how he once ruled human lands and souls. And now, when the magic began to weaken and dry up, fairies are returning from the depths of extreme antiquity, led by their new hope - the Raven King.

The list of experts also included the books “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones, “Pastoralia. Devastation in Civil War Park" by George Saunders, "Time to Lead the Horses" by Per Petterson, "Bastion of Solitude" by Jonathan Lethem, a collection of short stories by Kelly Link "It's All Very Strange", as well as the untranslated books "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" Alice Munro, "Twilight of the Superheroes: Stories" Deborah Eisenberg, "Mortals" Norman Rush, "Varieties of Disturbance: Stories" Lydia Davis, "American Genius: A Comedy" Lynne Tillman.

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 collections of the Centralized Library System of 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 on 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. He 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 in common with reality Everyday life 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. She also publishes her works of art 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 the women's romance novel.

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 her women's novels, Vilmont reveals the inner world of modern, mature, independent women who are able to control circumstances, talk 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 female motives actions, a 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!

Literature connoisseurs have ambivalent opinions about the work of modern Russian writers: some seem uninteresting to them, others - rude or immoral. One way or another, they raise topical issues of the new century, which is why young people love and read them with pleasure.

Movements, genres and modern writers

Russian writers of the present century prefer to develop new literary forms, completely different from Western ones. In the last few decades, their work has been represented in four directions: postmodernism, modernism, realism and post-realism. The prefix “post” speaks for itself - the reader should expect something new that has replaced the old foundations. The table demonstrates various trends in the literature of the current century, as well as books by the most prominent representatives.

Genres, works and modern writers of the 21st century in Russia
Postmodernism	Sots art: V. Pelevin - "Omon-Ra", M. Kononov - "Naked Pioneer"; Primitivism: O. Grigoriev - “Vitamin of Growth”; Conceptualism: V. Nekrasov; Post-postmodernism: O. Shishkin - "Anna Karenina 2"; E. Vodolazkin - "Laurel".
Modernism	Neo-futurism: V. Sosnora - “Flute and Prosaisms”, A. Voznesensky - “Russia is Risen”; Neo-primitivism: G. Sapgir - “New Lianozovo”, V. Nikolaev - “The ABC of the Absurd”; Absurdism: L. Petrushevskaya - “25 Again”, S. Shulyak - “Investigation”.
Realism	Modern political novel: A. Zvyagintsev - “Natural Selection”, A. Volos - “Kamikaze”; Satirical prose: M. Zhvanetsky - “Test by money”, E. Grishkovets; Erotic prose: N. Klemantovich - "The Road to Rome", E. Limonov - "Death in Venice"; Social-psychological drama and comedy: L. Razumovskaya - “Passion at a Dacha near Moscow”, L. Ulitskaya - “Russian Jam”; Metaphysical realism: E. Schwartz - “Savagery of the last time”, A. Kim - “Onlyria”; Metaphysical idealism: Yu. Mamleev - “Eternal Russia”, K. Kedrov - “Inside out”.
Postrealism	Women's prose: L. Ulitskaya, T. Salomatina, D. Rubina; New military prose: V. Makanin - “Asan”, Z. Prilepin, R. Senchin; Youth prose: S. Minaev, I. Ivanov - “The geographer drank the globe away”; Non-fiction prose: S. Shargunov.

New ideas of Sergei Minaev

"Dukhless. The Tale of an Unreal Man" is a book with an unusual concept, which modern writers of the 21st century in Russia have not previously touched upon in their work. This is the debut novel by Sergei Minaev about the moral flaws of a society in which debauchery and chaos reign. The author uses swearing and obscene language to convey the character of the main character, which does not confuse readers at all. A top manager of a large canned food production company turns out to be a victim of swindlers: he is offered to invest a large sum in the construction of a casino, but is soon deceived and left with nothing.

"The Chicks. A Tale of False Love" talks about how difficult it is to maintain human face. Andrei Mirkin is 27 years old, but he has no intention of getting married and instead starts an affair with two girls at the same time. Later he learns that one is expecting a child from him, and the other turns out to be HIV-infected. A quiet life is alien to Mirkin, and he is constantly looking for adventure in nightclubs and bars, which does not lead to good things.

Popular and critics do not favor Minaev in their circles: being illiterate, he achieved success in as soon as possible and made Russians admire his works. The author admits that his fans are mainly viewers of the reality show "Dom-2".

Chekhov's traditions in Ulitskaya's work

The characters in the play “Russian Jam” live in an old dacha near Moscow, which is about to come to an end: the sewer system is faulty, the boards on the floor have long since rotted, and there is no electricity. Their life is a real “nail”, but the owners are proud of their inheritance and are not going to move to a more favorable place. They have a constant income from the sale of jam, which contains either mice or other nasty things. Modern writers of Russian literature often borrow the ideas of their predecessors. Thus, Ulitskaya follows Chekhov’s techniques in the play: the characters’ dialogue does not work out because of their desire to shout over each other, and against the background of this one can hear the crackling of a rotten floor or sounds from the sewer. At the end of the drama, they are forced to leave the dacha because the land is being purchased for the construction of Disneyland.

Features of Victor Pelevin's stories

Russian writers of the 21st century often turn to the traditions of their predecessors and use the technique of intertext. Names and details that echo the works of the classics are deliberately introduced into the narrative. Intertextuality can be seen in Victor Pelevin's story "Nika". The reader feels the influence of Bunin and Nabokov from the very beginning, when the author uses the phrase “light breathing” in the story. The narrator quotes and mentions Nabokov, who masterfully described the beauty of a girl's body in the novel Lolita. Pelevin borrows the manners of his predecessors, but discovers a new “technique of deception.” Only in the end can one guess that flexible and graceful Nika is actually a cat. Pelevin brilliantly manages to deceive the reader in the story “Sigmund in the Cafe,” where the main character turns out to be a parrot. The author drives us into a trap, but this makes us enjoy it more.

Realism by Yuri Buida

Many modern writers of the 21st century in Russia were born decades after the end of the war, so their work is focused primarily on Yuri Buida was born in 1954 and grew up in the Kaliningrad region - a territory that previously belonged to Germany, which was reflected in the title of the cycle of his stories.

"The Prussian Bride" - naturalistic sketches about the difficult post-war times. The young reader sees a reality that he has never heard of before. The story "Rita Schmidt Anyone" tells the story of an orphaned girl raised in terrible conditions. They say to the poor thing: “You are the daughter of the Antichrist. You must suffer. You must atone.” A terrible sentence was pronounced because German blood flows in Rita’s veins, but she endures bullying and continues to remain strong.

Novels about Erast Fandorin

Boris Akunin writes books differently from other modern writers of the 21st century in Russia. The author is interested in the culture of the past two centuries, so the action of the novels about Erast Fandorin takes place from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the 20th. The main character is a noble aristocrat, leading investigations into the most notorious crimes. For his valor and bravery, he is awarded six orders, but he does not remain in public office for long: after a conflict with the Moscow authorities, Fandorin prefers to work alone with his faithful valet, the Japanese Masa. Few modern foreign writers write in the detective genre; Russian writers, in particular Dontsova and Akunin, win the hearts of readers with crime stories, so their works will be relevant for a long time.

About 100 thousand new books are published in Russia every year, and dozens of previously unknown authors appear. How to choose what to read? “Kultura.RF” talks about contemporary authors who in recent years have become winners of the largest Russian literary awards, whose books have topped bookstore sales rankings for months. Critics view them favorably, famous writers speak flatly about them, but most importantly, their books have become important events in the cultural life of the country.

Evgeniy Vodolazkin

Novels “Laurel”, “Aviator”, collection of novels and short stories “A Completely Different Time”

Evgeny Vodolazkin. Photo: godliteratury.ru

Evgeny Vodolazkin. "Laurel". LLC "AST Publishing House" 2012

Evgeny Vodolazkin. "Aviator". LLC "AST Publishing House" 2016

Professor of Old Russian Literature, Researcher Pushkin House in St. Petersburg, a student of Dmitry Likhachev, a real St. Petersburg intellectual - this is how Evgeny Vodolazkin was introduced at lectures, conferences, and meetings a few years ago. Now he is not only one of the most promising authors of modern Russian literature, but also one of the most famous - you won’t see his books in a rare store, Vodolazkin’s name is among the leaders in requests in libraries.

In 2012, he literally burst into literature with the novel “Laurel.” The very next year, the novel received two of the most significant domestic awards - “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana”, and within two years it became popular abroad. Today “Lavr” has been translated into 23 languages. Latest news There was news of the purchase of the rights to a full-length film adaptation of the novel. Everything that both the discerning critic and the reader expected came together in the book - good story about a medieval healer, rich language, its own special style, mixed with the interweaving of several (historical) plots.

This is not the author’s first novel; before that he published “The Rape of Europe” (2005), “Soloviev and Larionov” (2009). In addition, Evgeny Vodolazkin is the compiler of several books about Likhachev: “Dmitry Likhachev and his era” (2002), as well as a collection of memoirs about life on the Solovetsky Islands in different historical periods “A piece of land surrounded by sky” (2010) In the footsteps of the “Lavra” “In 2013, a collection of early novels and short stories, “A Completely Different Time,” was published.

After the first success, “everyone began to wait for the second “Laurel” - as the author himself said more than once. But an experienced philologist and literature connoisseur, Evgeny Vodolazkin knew that “a second “Laurel” cannot be written,” so the second novel was based on the events of the 1917 revolution - and its consequences. The literary premiere in the spring of 2016 was published under the title “Aviator”, and the drawing for the cover of the book was made by the artist Mikhail Shemyakin. Even before the book’s release, a fragment of the text was written across the country as part of the “Total Dictation” educational project. From the day of its release until the end of 2016, the book was in the top sales of the largest stores, received favorable reviews in the press and, as a result, received the “Big Book” award. Today the author is working on a new novel, which will be dedicated to the era of the second half of the last century.

Guzel Yakhina

Novel “Zuleikha opens her eyes”, short stories

Guzel Yakhina. Photo: readly.ru

Guzel Yakhina. “Zuleikha opens her eyes.” LLC "AST Publishing House" 2015

Guzel Yakhina. Photo: godliteratury.ru

Another bright, unexpected literary debut. First, a young writer from Kazan, Guzel Yakhina, wrote the script “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” - the story of the dispossession of Kazakh Tatars in the 1930s. Not finding the opportunity to realize it in cinema, she created a novel of the same name - but it was never published, even the capital’s “thick” magazines did not take it. The text was first published in the Novosibirsk magazine “Siberian Lights”. Meanwhile, the manuscript ended up in the hands of Lyudmila Ulitskaya, she liked the book, and she recommended the novel to her publishing house.

“The novel has the main quality of real literature - it goes straight to the heart. A story about fate main character, a Tatar peasant woman from the time of dispossession, breathes such authenticity, reliability and charm, which are not so often found in last decades in the huge stream of modern prose",- Lyudmila Ulitskaya will later write in the preface to the book.

The literary fate of the novel is somewhat similar to the fate of Vodolazkin’s “Lavr”. In 2015, “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” also received the “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” awards, was translated into two dozen languages, received a huge number of grateful reviews from readers and remained in the top sales for a long time. After literary success, the Rossiya-1 TV channel volunteered to film the book in the form of an 8-episode film. Guzel Yakhina dreams that main role Chulpan Khamatova, also born in Kazan, played in the series.

Valery Zalotukha

Novel “Candle”, collection “My Father, the Miner”

Valery Zalotukha. Photo: kino-teatr.ru

Valery Zalotukha. "Candle". Volume 1. Publishing house "Time". 2014

Valery Zalotukha. "Candle". Volume 2. Publishing house "Time". 2014

Until 2015, the name of Valery Zalotukha was known rather in the world of cinema - he was the screenwriter of Khotinenko’s films “Makarov”, “Muslim”, “Roy”, “72 Meters”, and later directed documentaries. What about literature? In 2000, the story “The Last Communist”, published in Novy Mir, was included in the final list of the Russian Booker. After this, the name Zalotukha disappears from the literary horizon for 14 years, twelve of which are spent creating the two-volume, almost 1,700-page novel “The Candle.” The book turned out to be a rare phenomenon in modern literature against the backdrop of “fast” prose, when works are written quickly and, when printed, are placed in a coat pocket. The theme is “the dashing 90s,” but without references to history, which is also rare for prose of recent years.

The novel was first noticed not by readers, but by fellow writers. It was they who immediately discerned in Valery Zalotukha’s multi-page tome an attempt to create a great Russian novel. That classic novel that the reader remembers from the books of Rasputin, Solzhenitsyn, Astafiev...

“I’m afraid that all of Zalotukha’s previous film scripts and literary merits will fade in front of the novel “Candle” and he will be remembered as the author of these two massive volumes...- Dmitry Bykov says about the book. - “Svechka” is a novel about a good Russian person, which is practically not the case now. This is yet another Russian ordeal. But the charm of this hero is such that everything that happens to him evokes our deepest sympathy.”.

The task that the author sets himself - to write a full-length book about the era of the 1990s - aroused keen interest among critics and the public. The result was that the novel was awarded the Big Book Prize. Unfortunately, the author himself was not able to receive the prize - a few weeks before the presentation of “Candles” Valery Zalotukha died.

In 2016, the Vremya publishing house posthumously published the book “My Father, a Miner,” which included all the author’s prose written before “Candle.” The collection includes the stories “The Last Communist”, “The Great March for the Liberation of India”, “Makarov”, as well as short stories. These works have not been published in print for many years. The collection seemed to return them to the general reader, presenting the author as a talented storyteller and master short story. A collection of scripts by Valery Zalotukha is being prepared for publication.

Alisa Ganieva

The story “Salaam to you, Dalgat”; novels “Holiday Mountain”, “Bride and Groom”

Alisa Ganieva. Photo: wikimedia.org

Alisa Ganieva. “Salaam to you, Dalgat!” LLC "AST Publishing House" 2010

Alisa Ganieva. "Holiday Mountain" LLC "AST Publishing House" 2012

In 2010, Alisa Ganieva made a bright debut with the story “Salaam to you, Dalgat!” The book received the “Debut” youth award in the “Large Prose” category and received favorable reviews from critics and readers. By nationality - Avar, a graduate of the Literary Institute named after. Gorky, Alisa Ganieva discovered in modern Russian literature (which is important - youth) the theme of the culture of the Caucasus, or more precisely, of her native Dagestan. The author talks about the peculiarities of traditions and temperament, and most importantly - about the Europeanization of Dagestan, tries to understand how the Caucasian republics are joining the new, 21st century, what difficulties they face, what innovations they adapt to, and what they reject. Sergey Belyakov. "Gumilev's son Gumilev." LLC "AST Publishing House" 2013

Sergey Belyakov. "Mazepa's Shadow" LLC "AST Publishing House" 2016

The name of a historian by training, literary editor Sergei Belyakov first sounded loudly in 2013. Then, for his research in the non-fiction genre “Gumilyov, the son of Gumilyov,” he was awarded the “Big Book” prize. “Gumilyov, son of Gumilyov” is a fascinating biography of the famous orientalist historian, the son of two great poets of the Silver Age - Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilyov, - symbolically intertwined with the history of the twentieth century. Sergei Belyakov’s second book was a work at the intersection of literature and history, “Mazepa’s Shadow.”

This is not the first time that non-fiction writers have emerged as leaders. So, back in 2005, Dmitry Bykov received the “Big Book” award for his biography of Boris Pasternak, and the 2016 winner Leonid Yuzefovich wrote a book in the same genre about Civil War. Last year's awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Svetlana Alexievich, who works in the genre of documentary prose, only strengthened the position of this genre in the literary ranks.

(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 does not 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 must have been 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 about how society decided to try to be more humane and gave clone children a 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 from you 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 rather a story of male failure, or even an answer to the question of whether in the modern world a man can, 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 the entire 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 Orphanage, every, even the smallest, advance in the theory of small matters.

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 a scorched nuclear war a future in which a loophole to a new life suddenly opens. 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.