7 books by young writers worth checking out
Miscellaneous / / April 26, 2022
Sensitive, captivating, stylistically accurate, they are in no way inferior to world classics.
Ekaterina Pisareva
1. "Wound", Oksana Vasyakina
A very important book about loss and how to deal with it. The Wound is a hybrid novel that is full of reflections on the nature of the text and continuity, on corporeality and death. The heroine of "Wounds" - a young poetess, Vasyakina's alter ego - goes to bury her mother's ashes in the small Siberian town of Ust-Ilimsk. She captures all her sensations, thoughts and feelings, writes about everything soberly, with a cool head. This calm and detached story hits the heart.
Perhaps this is one of the most striking prose debuts of recent years. The Wound was shortlisted for the Big Book Literary Awards, won the 2021 NOSE Judges' Top Book of the Year Award, and won the Academy of Critics Award separately.
To buy a book2. "Paul Zhang and other river creatures", Vera Bogdanova
Today we are experiencing the heyday of dystopia: now and then everyone remembers either Orwell with his 1984, then Huxley with Brave New World, or Zamyatin's novel We. And the young writer Vera Bogdanova came up with her own modern dystopia.
The protagonist of the book, Pavel Zhang, is a talented programmer, a student of orphanagein which he was abused. Many years later, he accidentally meets his offender... and a dark, terrible force breaks out. All of this is taking place against the backdrop of disturbing political developments: Russia is rapidly being colonized by China, and the company Zhang works for is engaged in a project of future state chipization of people.
To buy a book3. St. John's wort, Ksenia Burzhskaya
As in Bourgesskaya's previous book, My White, the writer is interested in people and how they feel: one wrong decision or a strange accident can turn their whole world upside down. The problems of heroes are very similar to those with which the Irish writer Sally Rooney works: we see inept communication, traumatic sexual experiences, and the illogical behavior of young adults who never learn how to live no drama.
Along the way, Bourgeska touches on current topics such as abuse, harassment and violation of personal boundaries, which makes the novel "St. John's Wort" actually a generational book of millennials.
To buy a book4. "Sato", Rahim Jafarov
Sato is the name of a captured Rear Admiral who came to Earth by accident and found himself in the body of five-year-old Kostya. The parents bring the boy to Dasha, a child psychologist, to find out if he is telling the truth and what is the reason for his strange behavior.
It was "Sato" by Rahim Jafarov who became the laureate of the ninth season of the "New Horizons" award and was named the best fantasy novel of the year. But fantasy is not limited to this. Jafarov turned out to be an interesting philosophical and psychological novel, in which the young author raises many of the most different topics: from traumatic childhood experiences within the family to how the institution of professional reputation works in Russia.
To buy a book5. “Sisters. About those who will toil", Evgenia Nekrasova
Writer, screenwriter, co-curator of the School of Literary Practice Evgenia Nekrasova became popular after the release of novel "Kalechina-Malechin": he was shortlisted for the "NOS", "National Bestseller" and "Big Book" awards. In it, Nekrasova, in her usual metaphorical manner, talked about how the girl Katya is experiencing school bullying and the cruelty of others.
In the collection "Sisters" there are also folklore and fantastic motifs and themes violenceOr rather, opposition to it. In her stories, Nekrasova is trying to speak, to bewitch reality so that it becomes at least a little kinder to all those who “will toil”.
To buy a book6. "Stream", Ivan Shipnigov
The debut novel by Ivan Shipnigov is assembled from many voices of different characters and their thoughts - sewn together from 66 fragments. Very different people live in it: lonely, needy, proud, courageous, longing and desperate. Shipnigov places them in the same universe and lets each of them speak online. It turns out a polyphonic text in the best traditions of Russian literature.
By the way, "Stream" was highly appreciated: the literary jury of the "National Best Seller" award included it in the short list of 2021.
To buy a book7. "Doomsday, my love", Alla Gorbunova
The collection of short stories "The End of the World, My Love" in 2020 was named the main book of the year. The poetess Alla Gorbunova turned to the tender and terrible 1990s and 2000s and spoke about them in a way that only writers with a big heart and disarming talent can do. The heroes of her philosophical novels are in many ways similar to each of the thirty-year-old generation: they are looking for themselves, traumatized by the past and hopeful for the future, embark on strange adventures and, of course, desperately want to be happy.
To buy a bookBy the way, "LitRes" gives a 20% discount on a subscription for 1 month using a promo code LHABON.
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