10 promising Russian and foreign authors whose books are worth reading

1. Vera Bogdanova

After the appearance of the debut novel "Pavel Zhang and other river creaturesBogdanova was widely talked about in literary circles - the book even got on the short list of the National Bestseller award. The release of last year'sThe Season of Poisoned Fruit"secured the title of one of the most promising young writers for the author.

Bogdanova's books contain a lot of thoughts about generational traumas and stereotypes, about people who are looking for happiness, but over and over again doom themselves to failure. And if "Paul Zhang" was serious dystopia and a powerful social statement, then in the "Season" there is more sentimental, sensual. His heroes - Zhenya and Ilya - love each other in spite of everything, and society is not ready to accept them as a couple. They try to disperse, but fate again and again pushes them together. And all this against the backdrop of the disturbing 90s and zero with terrorist attacks and daily risk to life.

It is curious what the next book of the writer will be: according to her, work is underway on an action-packed thriller.

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2. Oksana Vasyakina

Poetess and curator of the School of Literary Practice Oksana Vasyakina burst into literature when she triumphantly won the Lyceum Award in the Poetry nomination. Her debut book, The Wound, has become one of the most talked about texts of 2021. It was written in the genre of autofiction, which is popular today - in the center of the plot is a young poetess who is heading to the small Siberian town of Ust-Ilimsk to bury her mother's ashes. And while the heroine makes her mournful journey, she thinks a lot about her mother, her own physicality and womanhood, as well as human life and death. And also about literature, which seems to be woven into the fabric of poetic existence.

"The Wound" was awarded the "NOS" award, and also entered the short list of the "Big Book". Two more parts came out later - "Steppe" And "Rose”, included in the autofix trilogy.

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3. Evgenia Nekrasova

Writer Evgenia Nekrasova is a colleague of Oksana Vasyakina at the School of Literary Practices. Her debut novelKalechina-Malechina” made it to the final of all possible Russian awards - “National Bestseller”, “Big Book” and “New Literary Review”.

The main character of the book is the girl Katya, who is experiencing a school bullying and complex family relationships. In order to somehow save her psyche, Katya revives Kikimora in her imagination, with whom she embarks on a dangerous journey. Nekrasova works in the genre of magical realism and deftly uses folklore. The same technique appears in the later novel of the writer - “Leather”, where Nekrasova raises the complex and painful topic of global slavery.

Separately, it is worth noting the collections of stories and poems of the writer - “Sisters" And "house love». In them, strong women who find themselves in difficult life situations come to the fore.

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4. Rahim Jafarov

The young writer Rahim Jafarov is the winner of the "New Horizons" award for the science fiction-psychological novel "Sato». Prior to this, the book was shortlisted for the NOS Award and won the Audience Choice Award.

As conceived by the author, the protagonist of the novel is a child who is sure that he is a captive Rear Admiral Sato, who is trapped on Earth. Parents take their son to a child psychologist to figure out what oddities are happening to the child and whether they can divorce so traumatic to affect his psyche. But at some point, even the psychologist Daria, who works with the boy, begins to doubt whether everything is as simple as it seems.

As a result, this philosophical text includes a huge list of topics: from childhood intra-family traumas to how the institution of reputation works in Russia. Recently, two more books by Jafarov have been published - “His final days" And "Mark and Ezra 2.0».

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5. Sally Rooney

Irish writer Sally Rooney is the main star of the millennial generation. After her novelNormal people"Even in the manuscript, he was on the long list of the Booker Prize, they started talking about it all over the world. The book was quickly filmed HuLu and BBC Three released a series, the main theme of which was the traumatic love relationship between the characters. Sally Rooney was immediately dubbed "the Salinger of the Millennials", a writer who showed the complexities of communication between people.

Her characters are unable to speak important questions, because they are afraid of being rejected and misunderstood. They live in a world of new ethics, but they orient themselves in it like blind kittens. Discussions of politics, culture, literature and the world agenda often replace everything with them, and then it turns out that in reality they never recognized each other. At the moment, two more books by Rooney have been released: the debut "Conversations with friends" And "Beautiful world, where are you». They still feature millennials who are afraid of intimacy, although they desperately dream about it.

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6. David Hopen

Very little is known about the young writer David Hopen. He attended Yale Law School and holds an MA from Oxford University. Most recently, Phantom Press published the author's debut novel, Pardes, which critics immediately put on a par with Salinger's bestseller The Catcher in the Rye. Although, according to the editor-in-chief of Phantom, Igor Alyukov, the book is in many ways closer to the mystical Magus by John Fowles and the psychological Secret History Donna Tartt.

The protagonist is 17-year-old Brooklyn boy Ari, who grew up in a Hasidic Orthodox family. He moves from New York to Florida and plunges into an atmosphere of freedom never seen before. He is attracted by opportunities and Pardes - a secret garden where a person gains knowledge and approaches God. As a result, Hopen turned out to be an amazing philosophical saga about growing up, worthy of the reader's attention.

7. Xenia Burzhskaya

At the non/fictioN spring fair, the writer Ksenia Burzhskaya presented her new novel, Ways of Communication. This is a historical fiction work, which takes place in 1936 and 2044.

The first part told about people from the past - the girls Nina and Ganechka. Their friendship is the only ray of light in the dark kingdom, they hold on to each other so as not to fall into the abyss, but in the realities of the past it is impossible not to disappear and get lost. The second part is a classic dystopia in which the future looks bleak and doomed. The main characters are the voice assistant Nina, who is called upon to monitor and inform everyone, and the "courier" Danil. Due to a fatal accident, these characters, existing inside the totalitarian system, begin to see clearly and begin to rebel against it. It is interesting that the love of the machine for the person becomes the driving force.

Prior to this, Burzhskaya had already published two novels - a student's "My white"and more verified"St. John's wort». But her new book "Ways of Communication" showed that the writer has serious potential, and it is difficult to predict the topic and scale that she will take next. Burzhskaya also works with poetic speech - before the "Ways" a collection of her poems "Gateways».

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8. Helena Pobyarzhina

Belarusian writer and translator from Polish Helena Pobyarzhina is a debutante. She recently published her first novel,Valsarb». The action of the book takes place in the small Belarusian town of Braslav in 1985-1994.

The main character is a little girl who has a unique gift to see people who have long passed away and talk to them. They may be ex-prisoners. ghetto or those who lived in these places before the girl. Their names are forgotten, only she can restore and immortalize them. In dreams, they come to the heroine and tell their sad stories. Polyphonic polyphony is a technique that Pobyarzhina has mastered well and actively uses, but it must be borne in mind that the novel can be difficult for an unprepared reader. According to the editor-in-chief of Alpina. Prose" by Tatyana Solovyova, "this is a novel about personal and collective memory, about how they coexist in the human mind."

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9. Kirill Fokin

The young writer, screenwriter and journalist Kirill Fokin works with very complex topics. His dilogy "The Life of Lenro Avelz" / "The Death of Lenro Avelz" was shortlisted for the "New Horizons" award in 2021. This is a story about an unusual person who is trying with all his might to change his life for the better. And if the first part is memoirs the protagonist, Lenro Avelz's darling of fate, then the second is a journalistic investigation of his death, which includes the memories of loved ones and eyewitness accounts.

As a result, the dilogy turns out to be a serious socio-political fantasy, which is so relevant today. It is very curious to follow what the next topic the author will raise. In the meantime, his fantastic script "Petropolis" has been made into a film, and the play Rex is being staged in a Budapest theater.

10. Olga Breininger

Writer and literary anthropologist Olga Breininger is one of the main representatives of autofiction in Russia. Her debut novelThere was no Adderall in the Soviet Unionwas longlisted for the Big Book and National Bestseller awards.

The heroine Breininger is a girl whose biography is partially similar to the biography of the writer. She (like Breininger) is an ethnic German from Kazakhstan, but lived in Russia, Chechnya and America and ended up studying at Harvard. She is terribly occupied with one scientific experiment - how to become a superman and succeed in everything, to live at the limit of one's own capabilities. At some point, autofiction suddenly turns onto a fantastic path - the more interesting the novel becomes.

Breininger recently acted as a translator - thanks to her, Elisabeth Wurtzel's cult memoir "prozac nation».

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