9 books by modern writers that could become classics

Every year an incredible number of novelties of different genres are published in the world - but dozens, if not a few, remain in the history of literature. We tried to guess what creations of modern writers will become classics and will be included in school textbooks of the future.

1. "Petrovs in the Flu and Around It", Alexey Salnikov

Writer and poet from Yekaterinburg Alexey Salnikov - a phenomenon. His novel, first published in the Volga magazine, helped the author break into the world of great literature: the success with critics and ordinary readers was deafening.

It makes no sense to retell the plot of the book - the title fully reflects it. In the amazing flu-like world of heroes, between reality and hallucinations, our whole life seems to be reflected.

In 2018, "The Petrovs in the Flu and Around It" entered all kinds of premium lists, the novel was recognizedAward Winner 2018 "National Bestseller". Performances are staged based on his motives, and the director Kirill Serebrennikov shot

Filming of the film by Kirill Serebrennikov "The Petrovs in the Flu" full-length film.

Buy a book

2. "Jacob's Ladder", Lyudmila Ulitskaya

The name of Lyudmila Ulitskaya has long been a sign of quality, and the new books of the writer are always under the scrutiny of the public.

Jacob's Ladder, awarded in 2016"Big Book" - results the prestigious Big Book Literary Prize, is a parable novel, a family drama spanning nearly three centuries. This is a philosophical, but at the same time a very lively text, which is able to inscribe not only the author, but also his heroes, behind which are real people, into eternity. As in the case of the novel "Daniel Stein, Translator", Ulitskaya did a great job with the documents: this time the book grew out of the author's personal archive - from the correspondence of Ludmila's grandfather and his diary notes.

Buy a book

3. iPhuck 10, Victor Pelevin

The one and only Victor Olegovich already became a classic during his lifetime. After the overwhelming success of Chapaev and Pustota in 1996 and Generation P in 1999, even those who do not follow modern literature at all learned about his books.

IPhuck 10, Pelevin's fifteenth novel, written in 2017, refers to the (alas!) Infrequent successes of his later work. The main character, the literary-police algorithm Porfiry Petrovich, investigates crimes and writes novels, and Pelevin is very curious about the relationship between artificial intelligence and the people who surround.

IPhuck 10 novel was awardedVictor Pelevin received the Andrey Bely Prize for the novel "iPhuck 10" literary prize of Andrei Bely.

Buy a book

4. Submission, Michel Houellebecq

Almost all of Michel Houellebecq's books deserve to be carefully studied in the course of modern world literature. The action of "Obedience" - one of the best works of the writer - takes place in France in 2022, where a Muslim president comes to power, and the country begins to change before our eyes. Interestingly, the novel went on sale on January 7, 2015 - on the day of the terrorist attack in the editorial office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. By the way, the clever Houellebecq skillfully mixes reality with fiction, so on the pages of the book you can find real political figures such as Marine Le Pen and François Hollande.

Buy a book

5. "Zuleikha opens her eyes", Guzel Yakhina

Another deafening debut is a novel, after the release of which writer woke up famous. Controversial and debated, it raises the painful and important topic of dispossession in the USSR in the 1930s. In the center of the plot is a woman's fate against the backdrop of horrific historical events.

The work "Zuleikha opens her eyes""Zuleikha Opens Eyes" topped the rating of popular books among Russians rating of the most popular books among Russians, written after 1992. In 2020, the Rossiya TV channel releasedThe first reviews of the series "Zuleikha Opens Eyes" the eponymous series with Chulpan Khamatova in the title role.

Buy a book

6. Girls by Emma Kline

The debut novel "Girls" by American Emma Kline also turned out to be very bright. We can say that this is a story about a sect and its internal mechanisms, or we can designate the work as a novel of growing up - both options will be correct.

In this story, the prototypes of the heroes are quite recognizable. The "Girls" sect from the novel by Cline operates in the United States of the 60s, the cultists have several brutal murders, and their leader, Russell, has features Charles Manson. This is an important text that shows how insecurity, dislike and youthful restlessness can lead a teenager into very bad company.

Buy a book

7. "Day of the Oprichnik", Vladimir Sorokin

If anyone can tell about our life bitterly and piercingly, mercilessly and at the same time with compassion, it is Vladimir Sorokin. I suppose that each of his books (from "The Ice Trilogy" and "Blizzard" to "Telluria") took a significant place in the culture, but I would especially like to mention the "Day of the Oprichnik". it dystopia about Russia in 2027, where autocracy has been restored, repressions are being carried out and punitive detachments are operating. Reading this book is scary, and not returning to it in thoughts, looking through the news feed, is simply impossible.

Buy a book

8. "In memory of memory", Maria Stepanova

The novel, or rather the romance, by the poetess Maria Stepanova became an amazing discovery in the literary world. The author works with the phenomenon of memory: explores its mechanisms and studies what happens to memories and people who are consigned to oblivion.

It is from the book of Maria Stepanova in modern Russian literature began a large-scale conversation about private and historical memory in the XXI century. In the work "In Memory of Memory" the author tried to show and tell the history of the country through the history of a kind.

Buy a book

9. Normal People by Sally Rooney

The book by Irish writer Sally Rooney is also a phenomenon of its own kind. Young and successful Rooney made a bright debut with the text "Conversations with Friends", and her second novel - "Normal People" - enteredThe Booker Prize 2018 in the long-list of the Booker Prize even before the official publication. Rights to his film adaptation were immediately bought out, and in 2020 the BBC came outNormal People BBC series: When will Sally Rooney’s novel be on TV and who’s in the cast? 12 ‑ part film.

"Normal people" are interesting because it is a universal story about youth and first love - ridiculous, funny, doomed. And while many refer to the writer as the Salinger for millennials, this is not entirely true. Rooney is an author for people who still remember the taste of youth, no matter how old they are.

Buy a book

Especially for Lifehacker readers, MyBook gives all new users 14 days of premium subscription with a promotional code NINEBOOKSplus a 25% discount on a 1 or 3 month MyBook premium subscription. Redeem the code by September 13, 2020, and then read and listen without restriction to these or any other of the 290 thousand electronic and audiobooks.