10 best fiction books of 2021
Miscellaneous / / December 09, 2021
Family saga, modern "Lolita", historical novel - there is definitely something to read.
Ekaterina Pisareva
1. "Brownie Love", Evgeniya Nekrasova
Many people are tied to home with invisible bonds. It can become both a place of power and a prison. Some talk about him fondly, others shudder in horror. The writer Yevgenia Nekrasova dedicated her new collection to the house and its inhabitants. Her stories, poems and stories conjure reality, immerse readers in strange stories that seem quite realistic.
It is curious that Nekrasova's texts are inhabited mainly by female heroines: strong, brave and desperate. They do not get lost even in the most difficult situations and, doubting everything, remain true to themselves.
Buy a book2. Gerda Taro: Double Exposure, Helena Janecek
Gerda Taro is the first woman to become a military photojournalist. She filmed the civil war in Spain and died in 1937 very young, not having lived a week until she was 27 years old. The girl's name is inextricably linked with the legendary photographer and founder of military journalism Robert Capoi: At the beginning of their careers, Friedman (Capa's real name) and Taro worked together and both sold photographs under by this
alias.Helena Janeček has studied the archives, analyzed the facts and created a fascinating documentary novel that will help to understand the role of Gerda Taro in the success of Robert Capa.
Buy a book3. Dutch House by Anne Patchett
American Anne Patchett has long been loved by the Russian reader. Her new novel is a family epic. A story about human nature, childhood trauma and overcoming oneself. And also about love and compassion. It is pointless to retell in detail what this book is about - you have to read it.
And the last thing: be sure to pay attention to the worthy translation of Sergei Kumysh, thanks to which Patchett acquired a Russian voice.
Buy a book4. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Vanessa, already an adult woman, recalls her high school romance. And not with anyone, but with a teacher, a person much older than her and endowed with power. When she is 15 and he is 42, it’s easy to guess that the first love experience will inflict an indelible trauma for life. But is everything unambiguous in this story if the victim refuses to consider himself a victim?
In the spring, when the novel was published in Russian, the book was discussed by almost everyone: users of social networks, one after another, wrote posts about whether love can justify violence. It is worth getting to know the most scandalous book of the year.
Buy a book5. Kishot, Salman Rushdie
Sam Duchamp writes spy books and battles a midlife crisis. Inspired by the immortal novel of Cervantes, the hero comes up with his own Quixote - the elderly salesman Ishmael Smile. Together they will embark on an exciting journey across Trump's America to find their Beautiful Lady - TV presenter Salma, whom Smile accidentally falls in love with.
The narrative, as always, is rich, complex, full of allusions and hints. Salman Rushdie is one of those authors who know how to surprise.
Buy a book6. "Wound", Oksana Vasyakina
A young poetess is taking her mother's ashes to Siberia, to the small town of Ust-Ilimsk. Faced with death, the girl recalls the past, ponders family relationships and recites old traumas. The heroine sees life through the prism of literature, and the lines of writers and poets flicker in the text every now and then, even the heroine appears Greek myth - Philomela.
The result is an amazing hybrid text that combines art and life. And if the latter is finite, then the former has no boundaries.
Buy a book7. We Knew To Believe by Rebecca McKie
Chicago 1980s. Yale Tishman, director of art gallery development, thinks about art and pursues her career. He doesn't even notice how the city is covered with an epidemic. AIDS, because of which one after another his close comrades perish. Finally, Yale is practically alone. He is supported only by Fiona, the sister of a deceased friend. McKie deftly weaves their fates, and events at some point are transferred to modern Paris.
This novel about friendship and art, loss and trauma is often compared to A Little Life, but it is better to see it as a unique work about the impact of historical events on ordinary people.
Buy a book8. "Doctor Garin", Vladimir Sorokin
Continuation of the famous story "Snowstorm", which in 2020 won the "Super-NOS" award and was named the book of the decade. In the new novel, we learn about the further fate of Dr. Garin, who once saved people from the Bolivian virus. Now the doctor runs a sanatorium, which treats ex-politicians from all over the world. His patients are American Donald, German Angela, Englishman Boris, Italian Silvio and Russian Vladimir. All of them live out their days under the sensitive eye of Garin.
This is not a boring text about elderly politicians who have retired, but a bizarre, lively and caustic story - Sorokin does not betray himself. There will even be a romantic line full of unexpected tenderness and lyricism.
Buy a book9. Zami: How to write my name in a new way, Audrey Lord
Audrey Lord herself defined the genre of the book as "biomyphography". This formulation is the key to how to perceive this experimental work. It is based on the real life experience of the writer and the stories of her female acquaintances. Lord describes the growing up of a black queer girl in 1950s America. Of course, the young heroine is faced with racism and homophobia, overcomes ostracism and misunderstanding and seeks himself.
Zami is not only an understanding of the experience of various women, but also a real manifesto of freedom and the right of all people to be what they want.
Buy a book10. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
First novel by a Pulitzer Prize winner. And, I must say, very relevant in the period pandemics. Brooks talks about a small English village whose inhabitants voluntarily cut themselves off from the world in order not to release the plague. So they spent a whole year until most of them died. The writer shows how people behave during a terrible disaster. How they reach the edge of their own capabilities, but keep going.
Today, this terrible romance seems rather not terrible, but even comforting. He supposedly explains that everything can be overcome, the main thing is to gain courage and patience.
Buy a bookAccording to the special LHACK promo code on the website "Liters»You can get a book from a special selection as a gift, as well as a 25% discount on almost the entire assortment.
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