10 Best Fiction Books of 2022

1. "The Season of Poisoned Fruits", Vera Bogdanova

Vera Bogdanova, bestselling author of "Pavel Zhang and other river creatures”, wrote a novel for all thirty-year-olds who remember the disturbing 90s and zero. The main characters Zhenya and Ilya are cousins ​​and brothers, who are overwhelmed by a forbidden passion condemned by society. But their feelings are based not so much on attraction, but on the warmth of memories, the similarity of characters and the general loneliness that has become. They grew up in families where dislike, insensitivity to one's neighbor was normalized. The fruits of their time, the characters seek salvation in each other, but everything turns out to be too complicated.

Like the Irish writer Sally Rooney, who has been called the main author of the millennials, Vera Bogdanova speaks in understandable language about the problems of her generation. And she does it in some ways even more powerfully than her foreign counterpart, at least more diverse and scarier.

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2. "Mr. Wilder and Me" by Jonathan Coe

A light, slightly melancholy novel by Jonathan Coe is dedicated to the famous film director Billy Wilder, the author of the popular paintings "Only girls in jazzand Sunset Boulevard. Coe talks about the decline of his career: the period when directors of the new time come to Hollywood, and the touching Wilder, with his love of psychologism, is forgotten.

The narration in the novel is conducted on behalf of a young girl, Calista, who, by sheer chance, ended up on the set of Fedora, the director’s most personal and sad picture. Calista observes Wilder's work and plunges into the mysterious world of cinema, which turns out to be merciless and prosaic, and also does not tolerate those who do not have time to keep up with the times and demands public. "Mr. Wilder and Me" can be considered a declaration of love to the great director, which today, alas, only cinephiles remember.

3. «KGBT+», Victor Pelevin

Pelevin's annual novel this season was awaited with great impatience. For 30 years now, the author has been ironically telling readers about the world in which we live, making predictions and passing sentences. "The one and only" Viktor Olegovich did not betray himself in the current novel - "KGBT +" turned out to be biting, bold, but unexpectedly comforting.

The action takes place in the same universe as in his previous book Transhumanism Inc. Heroes live in the hope of a can immortality and try to achieve success in every way available to them. For example, the main character Salavat becomes Kay, or a KGBT+ hacker who wins the hearts of the audience with his courage.

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4. "Chagin", Evgeny Vodolazkin

One of the most important writers of our time, Yevgeny Vodolazkin, bestselling author of "laurel" And "Aviatorreleased a new novel. It bears the name of the main character Chagin, a man with a phenomenal memory. His ability to memorize any amount of information is amazing, but does it bring happiness? Vodolazkin carefully studies how people's memories function, and acts as a merciful psychologist who knows more about others than they themselves.

5. The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason

The protagonist Luciusz Krzelewski is a medical student who becomes a military man. doctor during the First World War. He is young, full of hope and faith that he can help people. Fate accidentally throws Luciusz into a makeshift hospital, where a novice doctor has to learn everything in the process of work.

Mason's novel turned out to be philosophical - about life and death, the horrors and consequences of war, and also about selflessness, which only generous people are capable of.

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6. "Plague Nights", Orhan Pamuk

Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk wrote a story about an epidemic on the fictional island of Minger, part of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, there spread Bubonic plague, people begin to die by the hundreds, and healers helplessly shrug. And only strict quarantine can save the inhabitants.

This novel stands apart in the work of Pamuk. As always, the writer pays a lot of attention to oriental flavor and description of traditions, but this time he uses detective intrigue and new techniques. This may not be Pamuk's best book, but it is relevant today, when the world still remembers how it felt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

7. "Birds of America", Lorrie Moore

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore is a collection of short stories about women's lives, written with surgical precision. Moore is a modern American writer who carefully notices details and skillfully builds dialogues that perfectly convey the characters' personalities. Her heroines are trying to break away from reality, everyday life, problems and soar above the frailty of this world - like birds, sometimes devoid of wings.

8. "Three", Valerie Perrin

The French writer Valerie Perrin published the novel "Three" - about childhood dreams and memories of youth, about the cruelty of the passage of time, which breeds people dear to each other. Nina, Adrien and Etienne Friends from the school bench. They have a common past and a rapidly ending present: some of them are living their last days, while others have not yet accepted themselves.

Perrin immerses the reader in the lives of the characters, each of whom is looking for his own path. If Marcel Proust and Hanya Yanagihara had tried to work together, this book might well have been born - harsh, but tender and bewitchingly contrasted.

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9. "Sasha, hello!", Dmitry Danilov

"Hello Sasha!" - a new book by Dmitry Danilov, a famous playwright and author of The Man from Podolsk. In 2022, the work received the Yasnaya Polyana and Book of the Year awards, and was also included in the Big Book shortlist. Dystopia, written in the best traditions of Kafka and Nabokov, easily won the hearts of readers.

A university lecturer, the protagonist of the novel, is sentenced to death for being casually intimate with a girl under the age of 21. And this is a particularly serious crime in the Danilov universe, punishable to the fullest extent of the law. By decision of the court, the hero is sent to a specialized institution - the Combine - where the sentence will be put into effect. Or not. The intrigue is that none of the prisoners knows whether they will be shot by a machine gun with the cute name "Sasha" or whether they will forever walk at its barrel in anticipation of death. This "Russian roulette" gives rise to agonizing expectation and greatly affects the personality of the hero and his relationship with the world.

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10. "Professor's Favorite Equation" by Yoko Ogawa

Yoko Ogawa is an interesting Japanese writer who works with the theme of oblivion. Both in the previous novel, The Memory Police, and in the new one, The Professor's Favorite Equation, memory has a special place.

The main character, a mathematician, gets into a terrible accident, after which his brain stores information for only 80 minutes. After that, he completely forgets everything that happened, resetting again to the ill-fated accident. And only mathematics and numbers are able to streamline his life and give a deceptive sense of stability.

The story is told from the perspective of a woman who becomes the professor's friend even though he is unable to remember her. In 2006, the novel was filmed by Japanese director Takashi Koizumi. The picture turned out to be very poetic - the same as the works of Ogawa.

By special promo code 15LIFEHACKER on website "LitRes" all readers will receive a book as a gift from a special selection, as well as a 15% discount on almost the entire range.