Winners of the Booker Prize for Literature. Russian Booker 2017

TASS DOSSIER. On December 5, 2017, the name of the laureate of the Russian Booker literary award will be announced.

"Russian Booker" is a Russian independent literary prize. Awarded annually for the best novel written in Russian.

History of the award

Established in 1991 on the initiative of the head of the British trading company Booker plc, Michael Caine, and the British Council in Russia. The award was conceived as an analogue of the prestigious British Man Booker Prize (since 1969, awarded for the best novel written in English). Until 1997, it was called the Russian Booker Prize, then it was renamed "Smirnoff-Booker" (named after the sponsor - the charitable Foundation in memory of the Russian entrepreneur P. A. Smirnov), in 2002 - into "Booker - Open Russia" (named after the sponsor - Regional public organization "Open Russia"). It has had its current name since 2006; the trustee of the award since 2017 is the film company Fetisov Illusion.

Rules

A novel written in Russian by a living author, published from June 16 of the previous year to June 15 of the current year, can be nominated for the prize. The terms of the competition and the composition of the jury are determined by the Prize Committee (Booker Committee), which includes writers, journalists and cultural figures. The first chairman of the Russian Booker Committee was Michael Caine. Since the fall of 2015, it has been headed by Simon Dixon, a professor at University College London and a specialist in Russian culture. The literary secretary of the committee since 1999 is critic Igor Shaitanov. Book publishing houses, editorial offices of literary magazines, major libraries and universities have the right to nominate two works for the prize. The competition jury consists of five people and is elected annually by the Booker Committee from among writers and cultural figures. The jury can add its own nominees for the award (in exceptional cases), compiles “long” and “short” lists, and then determines the laureate.

Statistics

Over the entire existence of the Russian Booker, the “long list” of the award included about 670 novels. 146 works became finalists, 24 laureates. The shortest list of finalists was in 1995 - three novels, the longest - in 2005 - seven novels.

Laureates

The first winner of the Russian Booker in 1992 was Mark Kharitonov for his novel Lines of Fate, or Milashevich's Chest. In subsequent years, novels by Vladimir Makanin (A Table Covered with Cloth and a Decanter in the Middle, 1993), Bulat Okudzhava (The Abolished Theater, 1994), Mikhail Shishkin (The Taking of Izmail, 2000), and Lyudmila Ulitskaya ( "The Case of Kukotsky", 2001), Vasily Aksenov ("Voltairians and Voltaireans", 2004), Olga Slavnikova ("2017", 2006) and other famous writers.

In 2001 and 2011, according to special rules, a special prize was awarded - “Russian Booker of the Decade”. The first winner of the award was Georgy Vladimov (“The General and His Army,” winner in 1995), the second was Alexander Chudakov (“Darkness falls on the old steps…”, finalist in 2001; posthumously).

Prizes

In 2017, the winner of the main prize will receive 1.5 million rubles, the finalists - 150 thousand rubles each.

Since 2004, in parallel with the main prize, the “Student Booker” has also been awarded, the winner of which is determined by a jury of undergraduate and graduate students. It is formed based on the results of an all-Russian competition of essays written about novels included in the “long list” of the “Russian Booker”.

"Russian Booker - 2016"

In 2016, nominees for the Russian Booker Prize were nominated by 36 Russian and foreign publishing houses, six magazines, five universities and ten libraries. 73 works were nominated for participation in the prize competition, 71 were accepted. The chairman of the jury was the poetess and prose writer Olesya Nikolaeva. The jury also included prose writer and critic Alisa Ganieva, philologist and poet Vladimir Kozlov, director of the Novosibirsk State Regional Scientific Library, vice-president of the Russian Library Association Svetlana Tarasova, philologist and professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University David Feldman.

On July 13, a “long list” of applicants was presented; it included 24 works, including a new novel by 2001 laureate Lyudmila Ulitskaya (“Jacob’s Ladder”).

On October 5, the Russian Booker shortlist became known. It includes novels by Pyotr Aleshkovsky ("Fortress"), Leonid Yuzefovich ("Winter Road"), Boris Minaev ("Soft Fabric: Baptiste. Cloth"), Sukhbat Aflatuni ("Adoration of the Magi"), Sergei Lebedev ("People of August" ) and Alexander Melikhov (“And there is no reward for them”).

On December 1, the name of the prize winner was announced - Pyotr Aleshkovsky. His novel "Fortress" tells the story of a principled archaeologist working on excavations in an ancient Russian city. He is forced to confront both the arbitrariness of officials and the criminal plans of people seeking to destroy the ancient city fortress.

"Russian Booker - 2017"

In 2017, 37 publishing houses, 11 libraries, eight magazines and two universities nominated nominees for the Russian Booker Prize. 80 works were nominated for participation in the competition, 75 were accepted. The chairman of the jury is the writer Petr Aleshkovsky. In addition to him, the jury includes poet and critic Alexey Purin, literary critic and critic Artem Skvortsov, prose writer Alexander Snegirev and director of the Penza Regional Library. M. Yu. Lermontova Marina Osipova.

On September 7, a “long list” of applicants was presented; it included 19 works, including novels by the 2009 laureate. Elena Chizhova (“Sinologist”) and 2013 laureate Andrei Volos (“The Debtor”).

On October 26, the Russian Booker shortlist became known. It includes novels by Mikhail Gigolashvili ("The Secret Year"), Igor Malyshev ("Nomakh. Sparks of a Great Fire"), Vladimir Medvedev ("ZAHKHOK"), Alexander Melikhov ("Date with Quasimodo"), Alexandra Nikolaenko ("Kill Bobrykin. The Story of a Murder") and Dmitry Novikov ("The Burning Flame").

On a long list The Man Booker Prize 2017 there are absolutely no surprises. It is probably difficult to even imagine a more politically correct, restrained and correct list from all sides than the current one. In recent years, the Booker jury has pointedly ignored honored mainstream writers like Kate Atkinson, Ian McEwan, Annie Proulx or Kazuo Ishiguro - even Julian Barnes was given the prize in 2011 with a delay of ten to fifteen years, as if having realized that the best contemporary British writer, in In general, he’s not getting any younger.

For seven to ten years in a row, the Booker longlist has usually represented a struggle between the tree and the tights - with the jury’s ideas about beauty and their own ideas about what may be important for the average reader. These ideas, as we understand, did not coincide, so the long list always turned out to be colorful and unexpected. It usually included a couple of truly popular authors (but better than one), many writers who write about important things - but, for example, for ten people, several experimental novels and some sudden pop (like the 2008 longlisted Unbearably Cranberry detective story “Kid 44” about how they are looking for a maniac in the USSR, although in fact all shame and the ability to Google were lost).

It is not surprising, therefore, that literally until last year very few Booker nominees were translated. Until 2014, when the prize was slightly pumped up by changing the rules - now any English-language novel can be nominated, as long as it was published in Britain in the required period of time - the Booker Prize was somewhat similar to the famous British Marmite paste. On the one hand, it is an important cultural attraction. On the other hand, it looks like grave soil and smells of decay. The award is accused every year of the fact that each new Booker is just another selection of unreadable and gloomy reading material. For example, in 2007, the popular writer Robert Harris accused the Booker committee of paying attention to only elegant but empty books that, at best, would make a normal reader want to die. Russian publishers probably agreed with Robert Harris, because until 2016, from our entire long list, a maximum of three or four books were translated (for example, only four books from the 2015 nominees have been translated into Russian so far, and only three from the list). 2014), but in 2016 the situation changed dramatically for the better - 8 books from last year’s list have already been published in Russian.

This year, perhaps for the first time, the Russian reader will be interested in following the award, because this year almost the entire long list is made up of mainstream heavyweights who have every chance of being translated into Russian. For example, three novels from the list—The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, and Swing Time by Zadie Smith—will be published in Russian this year. However, we shouldn’t think that this year’s Booker judges consulted and decided to steer the course toward a simpler reader—the list includes both an eco-novel and a one-sentence novel—but the general core of the selected novels tells us this. Firstly, English-language authors have become more active in writing and talking with the reader about what worries them, and since we cannot avoid dialogue, the genre of the novel - even in its current fragmented, semi-Facebook form - has changed its mind about dying. Secondly, even authors who were previously interested in art for art’s sake entered the realm of public debate and took part in it. For example, Ali Smith, who wrote prose on the verge of poetry, mixing in it the subtle movements of the human soul with color painting and a minute-by-minute, Woolfian sense of the world, wrote a novel about Brexit. Sebastian Barry, who wrote mainly about the inner Ireland of each person, supported his son’s coming out with a new novel. Paul Auster wrote a seemingly very traditional thick novel about how our lives are influenced not so much by external important events as by our small and momentary decisions, etc. As a result, the current Booker turned out to have a human face - somewhere, of course, completely obvious, somewhere too politicized, but in any case, now at least it does not smell of decay and the past century.

The Underground Railroad / Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (US, Corpus, 2018, trans. O. Novitskaya)

The Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the US National Book Award, the Goodreads Award for Best Historical Novel, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel - Whitehead has every chance of winning the Booker, of course. Why did everyone suddenly love this book so much (a rare case when both critics and readers are unanimous)? On the one hand, Whitehead again writes about something important - you can’t just pass by a novel about slavery, which, moreover, structurally repeats Gulliver’s Travels. On the other hand, Whitehead managed to find some successful balance between the theme and its expression. He writes simply, sometimes even in black and white and agitated, but quite exciting. The story of Cora, a slave who tries to escape from slavery, can be followed even if you have already realized everything about your own white privilege a hundred times and repented. It is no coincidence that Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, is already making a film based on the book - cinematography will not spoil the novel, but rather complement it.

4 3 2 1, Paul Auster (US, Eksmo, 2018)

The husband of the writer Siri Hustvedt and also a classic of American literature. He became famous thanks to his postmodern “New York Trilogy” masquerading as a detective story (translated into Russian). In "4 3 2 1" Auster does with the hero approximately the same thing that happened with Ursula Todd in Kate Atkinson's novel "Life After Life". Archibald Ferguson was born on March 3, 1947 and lives 4 different lives against the backdrop of great upheavals plaguing the world, such as the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War.

Days Without End / Endless days, Sebastian Barry (Ireland, ABC, 2018)

For this book, Barry has already received two Costa Book Awards (novel of the year and book of the year) and the prestigious The Walter Scott Prize for the best historical novel of the year. It must be said that the novel is worth all its awards and the Booker nomination here is completely deserved. The action takes place during the American Civil War, but the book is not so much about the war, but about how it sharpens in people not just thirst, but an inhuman, bestial desire for a peaceful life.

The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness / Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy (India, AST, 2017)

Both critics and readers have divided opinions about the second, albeit long-awaited, novel by Arundhati Roy. After the undoubtedly masterpiece story “The God of Small Things,” which won the Booker Prize in 1997, from Roy, as usual, they expected something of the same kind, a literary miracle that combines the fabulous and the scary, the real India with our ideas about it. And the new novel turned out to be quite motley, but this is journalistic, not novelistic motley - the plots break off halfway, the characters suddenly go against their own lives and start talking about world politics, and the whole novel buzzes with polyphony, like Facebook after a big event. However, the magic has been preserved, the love has been preserved - so there is some kind of cement in the novel and it does not fall apart in the hands of the reader.

History of Wolves / History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund (US)

One of two debut novels on the list. On the one hand, there is an intriguing exposition: a former hippie commune in Minnesota fenced off from the whole world, accusations of child pornography and the painful choice that the teenage heroine has to make. On the other hand, there are more than lukewarm reviews from critics - they say, it started well, but forgot to finish.

Exit West / Western exit, Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan-UK)

Distinguished English-Pakistani writer. "West Exit" has a good chance of winning the Booker, although it will be a case of Paul Batey, last year's winner, when it is not the best-written novel that wins, but the novel about the most important thing. "Western Exit" is a crossover between romance and sci-fi: Nadia and Sayid flee from a nominally nameless Syria into the wealthy English-speaking world through black doors that suddenly open all over the world. Well, further: boundaries are a convention, people cut off from their roots change, love does not always win, but sometimes people have nothing at all besides it, etc.

Solar Bones/Solar Bones, Mike McCormack (Ireland)

That case when you forget to put points, and then you find yourself at the head of the literary avant-garde. McCormack wrote a one-sentence novel and even won the very serious Goldsmiths Prize for it, which is awarded annually for the most creative novel. All Saints Day, Ireland, Marcus Conway sits in the kitchen at the table and thinks about his family in jumping, scattered phrases that add up, of course, to lyrical beauty and everything that critics love so much. The only novel on the entire list that has the least chance of being translated.

Autumn/ Autumn, Ali Smith (UK)

I really want the Booker to receive this particular novel, then we will definitely start translating Ali Smith. In the meantime, her chances of being translated are only slightly higher than those of Mike McCormick, a lover of leaky syntax. Smith writes as if she is always wavering between prose and poetry, between Keats and Dickens, but at the same time, with all her love for broken sentences and internal rhymes, from somewhere at the very core of her text there is such a powerful talent and magic that you understand - she can write any way she wants, because it’s all real, without any admixture of graphomania or the traditional desire to show off her education. Smith wrote a novel about the autumn of the kingdom and the changes that occur in people after Brexit, connecting it all with a very noticeable plot about the love of Daniel and Elizabeth, who met when she was 11 and Daniel was 80. For the first time, love in Smith seems not stale reception, but a “connection of two hearts,” absurd, but sincere.

Reservoir 13/ Thirteenth Reservoir, John McGregor (UK)

A quiet British author who has every chance of becoming a quiet British classic. McGregor's prose is a slow look into the soul, a muttering recounting of the little things that suddenly add up to some kind of piercing life. “The Thirteenth Reservoir” is a very simple story about a missing girl and how her disappearance turned the world upside down for a small number of people and at the same time did not even move it.

Elmet/ Elmet, Fiona Moseley (UK)

Moseley worked in a bookshop, lived in a terrible squat in London and dreamed of a home. One day she went to Yorkshire to visit her family and on the train, looking at the beautiful Yorkshire landscapes, she took and wrote the first chapter of the novel - judging by the descriptions, about how beautiful the Yorkshire landscapes are (the novel went on sale only on August 10).

Swing Time/ Swing Time, Zadie Smith (UK, Eksmo, 2017, trans. M. Nemtsov)

Zadie Smith is such a very large literary figure who always writes about the important, and where she tries to write about the living, the sick and the sick, she suddenly collapses and turns on irony. “Swing Time” is perhaps her first novel where the living outweighs the ironic. If you liked the story of the hormonally twisted friendship between Lila and Lenu from the “Neapolitan Quartet” by Elena Ferrante, then you will read Smith’s new novel with pleasure. An obviously autobiographical story about two girls who live in a poor area of ​​London, learn to dance together and become friends with hatred and heartbreak, literally flies from beginning to end - it’s so real. The second part of the plot is about how rich white celebrities are slowly stealing Africa into golden bricks under the pretext of helping and extending a humanitarian nursing breast to it - that very obligatory, ironic part of the Marlezon ballet, which Smith always comes out perfectly, but too smoothly.

Lincoln in the Bardo / Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders (US, Eksmo, 2018)

Another honored American writer who became famous in his homeland for his stories. "Lincoln in the Bardo" is Saunders's first novel, which, in general, also consists of many separate stories. Abraham Lincoln comes to the cemetery to mourn his dead son Willie, and the cemetery turns out to be a bunch of talkative dead people - each with their own story.

Home Fire/ Hearth, Camilla Shamsi (UK-Pakistan, Phantom Press, 2018, trans. L. Summ)

Again, another very famous writer in Britain and Pakistan, who has not yet been translated here, but now, thanks to Booker, will be translated. "Home" is in some way a reworking of "Antigone", only taking into account all modern events. Love, politics, religion - an ageless plot bomb that, as expected, will leave behind a black hole in the reader’s heart, or at least force them to re-read Sophocles.

In October, two of the most prestigious literary awards made two very correct and balanced decisions. If this is a polite and respectful nod towards the mass reader (and even the viewer), then the case of George Saunders, who received the Man Booker Prize statuette ( Man Booker Prize), is a completely different calico. The victory of his novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” is a triumph of the underground (whatever that concept means now), a basement classic and, perhaps, a predictable but correct choice. The jury's decision proves that this time the Booker was given for literature for literature's sake, and not for merit, political correctness or agenda.

“Lincoln in the Bardo” is a truly worthwhile novel, although Saunders’s debut: before that the author worked exclusively with short prose. This is a book that you will either abandon after the first twenty pages or read from cover to cover.

1862, Abraham Lincoln is hosting a social reception, and at this time his son William dies of typhoid fever on the second floor. It was said that Willie was his father's favorite, and some newspapers claimed that the president was so broken that he spent the night in the crypt with his son's deceased body. Only Willy cannot find peace - his soul is stuck in a world vaguely reminiscent of purgatory, in that very bardo. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the bardo is an intermediate state between life and death, and Saunders turns this border world into a whitish nothingness, inhabited by all kinds of demons and clots of energy. Here Willie remains with a host of other souls, while somewhere behind an invisible partition his father cries.

"Lincoln in the Bardo" can be called a historical novel with a big, big stretch - however, it does not pretend to be a documentary. On the contrary, Saunders takes a reliable fact about the death of the son of an American president and begins to interweave it with fictitious documents, opinions of eyewitnesses and contemporaries, thus playing on the usual postmodernism postulate about the looseness of truth and the blurring of facts.

For such a comparison, they may throw literary critics’ stools at them, but I still want to compare “Lincoln in the Bardo” with “Bardo il not Bardo” by Antoine Volodin. Firstly, if you are not a Buddhist or a follower of Asian mystical practices, then you won’t be able to find much literature—let alone fiction—about this place. Such an analogy is also necessary in order to show how different the approach of the authors is when they fit their heroes into such settings. If Volodin kicks the corpse of postmodernism and, like Beckett, talks about the impossibility and exhaustion of writing, then Saunders takes the defibrillator - and the numb postmodernity in his novel begins to fill with blood.

First of all, "Lincoln in the Bardo" is a polyphonic novel with the voices of more than a hundred lost souls who echo each other, buzzing louder and louder - and breaking off mid-sentence; This is a novel that combines historical fact and schizophrenic narrative. And this is also a kind of Saunderian katabasis about the mystical stay of a boy in a clouded bardo until his soul turns into a thin clot of energy or reincarnates. And, last but not least, this is a great conversation about love and suffering, a heart-warming and at the same time grotesque private story about the loss of a son.

Saunders' novel, translated into Russian, will be published by Eksmo publishing house in 2018.

1. Emily Fridlund - “A Tale of Wolves”

Fridlund's debut is frankly weak, although it outlines the rich potential of the writer. This is the story of Linda's coming of age - a lonely wolf cub, raised in a commune along with northern rednecks and hippies and vegetating in the endless whirlwind of life and routine. But at some point Linda meets Patra, Leo and their sick son Paul - followers of Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science - and they turn her life upside down.

In essence, “The Tale of Wolves” is a coming-of-age novel, baked by a frosty wind, in which there is hopelessness, awareness of one’s own sexuality, and outsiderism. But we've already seen this somewhere.

2. Mohsin Hamid - "Western Exit"

Exit West, it would seem, a novel about the important and necessary - about refugees and coups. But in fact, it talks about two lovers, Nadiya and Said, hugging each other against the backdrop of plague, devastation and rebels. Unable to be oppressed any longer, young people flee first to London and then to the USA, where they find the happiness they have been waiting for.

Yes, this is a significant alternative voice of a Pakistani writer, a story about a painful boil of the third world, but for some reason - either because of the sweet story of kindred spirits, or the narrative based on emigration - this voice begins to deflate and irritate. In addition, novels of this kind have been included in every Booker longlist for the last few years.

3. Paul Auster "4 3 2 1"

If Paul Auster had received the Booker, it would have been no less fair. But on the other hand, he is a widely known novelist and has been awarded several other prestigious awards, so enough is enough for him. In addition, unlike other authors, Oster is almost completely translated into Russian.

His new Rabelaisian-sized volume tells the story of Archie Ferguson's life - in four alternative versions. The factual basis of the novel is unchanged - the boy grows up in the same middle-class Jewish family and has fun with the same friends - but depending on small details, Archie's fate develops differently, and historical reality (the assassination of Kennedy or the Vietnam War) changes frighteningly.

The novel in Russian will be published by Eksmo publishing house in 2018.

4. Ali Smith - "Autumn"

At first glance, “Autumn” may seem somewhat ragged and unfinished, however, once you get used to the intonation, you will be struck by the poetry and velvety quality of its language, caressed by the poems of John Keats.

Like Hamid, Smith also puts love at the center of the novel against the backdrop of a country crumbling and withering as a result of Brexit. Love, however, is slightly deviant: Daniel is 101, and Elizabeth is only 32. But, unlike the Pakistani, the Scottish writer filled her short novel with genuine lyricism and openness, which makes her want to be believed. By the way, this is the first of her “seasonal novels”, which will be followed by “Winter”, “Spring” and “Summer”.

The novel in Russian will be published by Eksmo publishing house in 2018.

5. Fiona Moseley - "Elmet"

Another debut. This time, a fusion of rural noir with the gothic, intertwined with legends and the ancient history of Yorkshire and the lost kingdom of Elmet, from which the novel takes its name. Surprisingly, this young writer is old-fashioned in a good way, since she began to compose melancholic bucolic prose, as if the twentieth century had not even thought of moving.

Daniel and Katie live in a house that they and Daddy built with their bare hands. Together with him, they lead a quiet life: they hunt, prepare cider and help each other in every possible way, when suddenly a heap of problems looms over the family in the form of cruel landowners, and the family saga begins to rhyme with the myth of the lost Elmet.

Late last week, the shortlist of nominees for the International Man Booker Prize was announced. It has been awarded since 2005 for works translated into English and is divided between the author and the translator. Buro 24/7 talks about the candidates for the award and finds out what they have in common.

Amos Oz "Judas"

Translator: Nicholas de Lange

Chances of transfer: high (Phantom Press publishing house, second half of 2017)

The Israeli writer Amos Oz has collected almost all the literary prizes existing in Europe and has been repeatedly named one of the most likely candidates for the Nobel, and critics are predicting the Booker in the first place for him. True, unlike the Swedes, the British recently do not like to honor famous authors for their general services to humanity and rather try to celebrate specific works. The reason for Oz's nomination was most likely not the three dozen books he has published over the past 50 years, or his status as a living classic. “Judas” is truly a wonderful, smart, subtle novel of rare stylistic beauty.

Taking the canonical image of the traitor as a starting point, Oz not only reinterprets the story of the relationship between Judas and Jesus, but also points out inaccuracies in the generally accepted interpretation of the biblical myth. He questions the validity of traditional ideas about treason as such and insists that this concept does not always have a strictly negative connotation. Filling the artistic world of the novel with mysterious, elusive characters in the spirit of Kafka and Meyrink, Oz uses their example to analyze the causes and consequences of the very real Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is still relevant today, and masterfully balances on the brink of a symbolist parable and a sharp, corrosive essay on international politics.

David Grossman "A Horse Walks into a Bar"

Translator: Jessica Cohen

Chances of transfer: high

Another Israeli on the shortlist is David Grossman, whose book also provides an interpretation of the fate of the Jewish people. True, unlike the delicate Oz, who does not push his characters forward, but seems to only lightly blow on their backs so that they themselves float with the flow of the plot, Grossman is decisive, straightforward and faithful to his favorite technique - the grotesque. The novel-monologue, which begins as an ordinary performance by comedian Dovale Ji at a local stand-up club, gradually turns into a piercing, hysterical confession of the main character, intended for the ears of one specific guest. Dovale Ji invited him to the hall himself, imposing on him the role of a witness, a lawyer, a prosecutor, and, finally, an arbitrator.

Grossman is often accused of populism and called an opportunist: they say, he raises important problems, but deliberately topical, and therefore his characters turn out to be cardboard, and their characters are implausible. However, “A Horse Walks into a Bar” is a chamber story, and therefore charming, touching and at the same time very scary. Dovale Ji's story is yet another proof that even the smallest and most awkward life can turn into a big tragedy, and between yesterday and today lies a bottomless abyss of suffering and doubt.

Mathias Henard "Compass"

Translator: Charlotte Mandell

Chances of transfer: low

Over the past ten years, Mathias Henard has transformed from a promising writer into a humble master of modern French literature. Modest not because he is far from the scandalous fame of Michel Houellebecq. In his books, most of which are in one way or another dedicated to the Middle East, a subtly apologetic tone can be heard. An expert in Arabic and Persian, Enar seems to feel guilty for wasting his talent on describing the events of the past and present not of his native country, but perhaps the most problematic region on the planet.

In the novel “Compass,” the author again turns to the theme of Orientalism: the main character of the book, the dying musicologist Franz Ritter, under the influence of opiates, makes a mental journey through Istanbul and Tehran, Aleppo and Palmyra, in order to understand when and why the dramatic separation of the Eastern world from the Western one took place. In the case of Compass, it is especially important to remember that the international Booker is given not only to the author, but also to the translator. Charlotte Mundell has previously adapted almost all French classics for the English-speaking reader: from Flaubert and Maupassant to Proust and Genet. She also worked on the translation of the acclaimed “Benefactors” by Jonathan Littell. In a word, Mandell deserves the award no less than Enard himself.

Samantha Schweblin "Fever Dream"

Translator: Megan McDowell

Chances of transfer: low

Samantha Schweblin is the dark horse on the shortlist for this year's Man Booker Prize. In Argentina, the writer's homeland, she is known primarily as an author of short prose: she has published three collections of short stories, and only a few of them have been published abroad. “Fever Dream” is Schweblin’s debut novel, which contains a hectic Latin American flavor and a shocking story of a woman who is either half-dead or has already passed on to her forefathers in a hospital bed.

Nowadays, directors and writers are well aware that what truly frightens the viewer or reader is not blood and guts, but hints at something mysterious, incomprehensible, something for which they have not yet come up with a suitable definition. In the end, everyone’s internal organs are more or less the same, but everyone has their own personal fears that we project onto the off-screen events from the heroes’ biographies. Thus, in Elizabeth Strout's novel My Name is Lucy Barton, the main character does not say what exactly her father did to her as a child: she uses a vague definition of “creepy,” stumbling over which we feel involuntary discomfort.

Understatement also drives the narrative in Fever Dream. However, unlike Strout, Schweblin is much less lyrical and psychological: whipping up suspense with a skill that Lovecraft would have envied, she presents human memory not just as a trap, but as an abandoned house, where in the labyrinthine corridors the ghosts of those we once howled and clanged with chains - loved and hated. And it is impossible to get out of this house.

Roy Jacobsen "The Invisible"

Translator: Don Bartlett

Chances of transfer: high

It is no exaggeration to say that in recent years the discourse of Scandinavian literature has been dominated mainly by the authors of dark, gripping detective thrillers: Jo Nesbø, Lars Kepler, Thomas Anger and, of course, Stieg Larsson, whose books still sell millions of copies despite the death of the author more than ten years ago. The secret of the popularity of these writers lies not only in the ability to keep the reader in suspense from the first to the last page: thanks to their novels, we understand that even in prosperous Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which regularly find themselves at the top of the ranking of the happiest countries in the world, everything is not going well either, thank God .

Roy Jacobsen, a native of the Oslo suburbs, also seeks to debunk the idealized image of Scandinavia conveyed in the media. However, his books draw primarily on the classical literary tradition shaped by Hamsun and Ibsen. Jacobsen usually focuses on a private family drama (as, for example, in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”), and the everyday descriptive component plays a role in his novels no less important than the plot itself (as in Hamsun’s trilogy about the wanderer Augustus). The writer’s “Invisible” saga, which was nominated for the Booker, completely devoted itself to the issues that worried his eminent predecessors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, again talking about the need to preserve the Norwegian national character and way of life.

Dorte Norse "Mirror, shoulder, sign"

Translator: Misha Hoekstra

Chances of transfer: low

Like Samantha Schweblin, the Danish Dorthe Norse is an author little known not only in Russia, but also in Europe and the USA. It has not yet been translated into Russian, and was first published in English only in 2015. It is noteworthy that her talent was revealed to a greater extent in short rather than in long prose. While a significant portion of writers dream of the idea of ​​publishing a Great Autobiographical Novel and becoming famous throughout the world, Norse makes a knight's move and chooses the short story format. And this tactic yielded certain results: it was Norse who became the first Danish author whose story was published in The New Yorker magazine, beloved by intellectuals and snobs.

Dorte Nord can be put on a par not only with Schweblin, but also with Jacobsen: like “The Invisible,” “Mirror, Shoulder, Sign” is a novel that touches on typically Scandinavian problems. Using the example of the translator Sonja, who learns to drive a car in her early forties, Norse, firstly, demonstrates how wide the gap in culture and everyday habits is between the urban and rural populations of Denmark. Secondly, it shows the other side of emancipation. And finally, thirdly, he tries to understand what determines the desire of older people to try themselves in new areas: the free-thinking of the population or its steady aging.

Today Leila Budaeva sums up the literary results of the past year: talks about the five main book awards of our time and shares a list of winning novels and shortlisted works. You can start making your reading list for next year now!

Booker Prize

It was founded in 1969, but until 2014 only writers from Great Britain, Ireland and the British Commonwealth could apply for it. Now a novel from any country can be nominated for a prize, as long as it is written in English.

This year's winner was “Lincoln in the Bardo” by American George Saunders. The book takes place over the course of one evening and touches on a real event - the death of 11-year-old William, the son of US President Abraham Lincoln in February 1862. The boy finds himself in the bardo - a kind of intermediate state described in Buddhism as the interval between death and the separation of mind and body. According to Saunders, the inhabitants of the bardo are "disfigured by desires that they did not fulfill while they were alive." Wanting to get out of this trap, William tries to communicate with his father.

“4 3 2 1”, Paul Auster (USA)- the novel takes place in the second half of the twentieth century and tells the story of four versions of the life of a boy named Archibald Ferguson, developing parallel to each other. Each of them speaks in its own way about his studies, growing up and relationships.

"The Story of Wolves", Emily Fridlund (USA) is the debut novel by a famous novelist, telling the story of a fourteen-year-old girl Madeline. She lives with her parents in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, acutely feeling loneliness and isolation from the world.

"Exit to the West", Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)- the novel touches on the themes of emigration and refugee problems. The plot follows the story of a young couple, Said and Nadia, who find themselves in the middle of a civil war in an unnamed country.

"Elmet", Fiona Moseley (UK)- another debut novel on the award shortlist. Brother and sister Daniel and Katie live with their father in the village of Elmet: they walk along the moors, raise cattle, and sincerely care about each other. The idyll continues until the family begins to be threatened...

"Autumn", Ali Smith (UK)- 101-year-old Daniel ends his days in a nursing home, where 30-year-old Elizabeth regularly visits him. Between them, despite the colossal age difference, a truly warm relationship developed. The novel takes place in the fall of 2016, after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, and, as the Man Booker Prize jury put it, is “a meditation on a changing world.”

Prix ​​Goncourt

The French award for achievements in the novel genre has been awarded annually since 1903. According to the charter, its laureate can only be won once. The only exception is the writer Romain Gary. He received the prize for the first time in 1956, and 19 years later he received it again under the name Emile Azhar.

This year's winning novel was The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard. The plot is based on real events and takes place in Nazi Germany. The book tells the story of the formation of the Nazi regime in alliance with prominent German industrialists.

The award shortlist also included:

"Bakhita", Véronique Olmy- the main rival of the winning novel, the plot of which is also based on real events. This is the story of a girl born in western Sudan in the mid-19th century. Kidnapped by slave traders at the age of seven, she passes from one owner to another until she is redeemed by the Italian consul. In Italy she is placed in a convent, after which she expresses a desire to be baptized...

"Hold Your Crown Tight" by Yannick Haenel- a certain writer created a useless script for a film about Herman Melville (author of the famous “Moby Dick”). In New York, he meets a famous director who is interested in his manuscript, after which a time of adventure begins in the hero’s life.

"The Art of Losing" by Alice Zenite- a novel about a girl from a Kabyle family who came to France from the north of Algeria. The book tells the story of the fate of several generations of refugees left in captivity of the past, as well as the right to be yourself - without taking into account anyone else's ideas about who you should become.

Pulitzer Prize

Established in the USA in 1903 and awarded for achievements in the fields of literature, journalism, music and theater. An interesting fact is that many award-winning books have never made the bestseller lists (exceptions include John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, which I discuss in a post on American literature), and most award-winning plays have never was not staged on Broadway theatres.

The winner of the award for fiction was The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The book takes place on the eve of the Civil War. The dark-skinned slave Cora decides to escape and ends up on a secret route system - an underground railroad, through which slaves were moved from the southern (slave-holding) states to the north. Whitehead emotionally recounts important milestones in the history of American slavery and subsequent segregation - the forced separation of the population along racial lines.

The nominees also included:

"Imagine Me Gone", Adam Haslett- a story about how difficult relationships within a family develop after a depressed father of three children commits suicide.

"The Sport of Kings", C.E. Morgan- The plot takes place in the American South. Ambitious Henry, a representative of one of the oldest families in Kentucky, decides to turn his family lands into a stud farm for breeding thoroughbred horses - future race winners.

Russian booker

The prize was established in 1992 on the initiative of the British Council in Russia as a project similar to the British Booker Prize. Awarded for the best novel published during the year.

The 2017 novel winner was Alexandra Nikolaenko’s book “Kill Bobrykin: the story of a murder.” 200 pages of text tell what is going on in the soul of the impressionable Sasha: day after day he is nostalgic for the times when he was in love with his classmate Tanya. Now she is married to Sasha’s neighbor, Bobrykin. To the hero he seems to be a personal demon, some kind of evil that has been haunting him since childhood - for this reason he is going to kill him.

The award shortlist also included:

“The Secret Year”, Mikhail Gigolashvili- the novel describes two weeks in the life of Ivan the Terrible during that strange period of Russian history when he left the throne to Simeon Bekbulatovich and secluded himself in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda for a year. The book, with elements of phantasmagoria, paints a psychological portrait of the king, his vulnerable, painful subconscious.

“Golomyanoe Flame”, Dmitry Novikov- a story declaring love to the harsh Russian North. The writer builds a bridge from the present day to the distant past, sincerely admires the beauty and richness of nature and talks about the spiritual component of modern life.

"Zahhok", Vladimir Medvedev- the book tells the story of a Russian teacher, Vera, who was unwillingly left with her children in Tajikistan during the civil war in the early 1990s. A polyphonic novel, written from the perspective of several characters, allows you to view events from several angles.

“Date with Quasimodo”, Alexander Melikhov- Dozens of murderers pass through the office of criminal psychologist Yulia, whose fate depends on her decision to consider them sane or not. What makes them break the law? The subject of reflection in this philosophical novel is the phenomenon of beauty.

“Nomakh. Sparks from a big fire”, Igor Malyshev- another novel on the theme of the civil war. Nomakh (the main character) exactly follows the path of Nestor Makhno, an anarcho-communist and leader of the rebel movement in southern Ukraine in 1918-1922.

Nobel Prize

Unlike other prizes, the Nobel Prize does not have an official list of finalists. We will learn about those who competed for the main literary prize of the world this year only half a century later, when the archives are published. The award was given to the British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro, who “in his novels of incredible emotional power reveals the abyss hidden behind our illusory sense of connection with the world” - this was the formulation voiced by the Nobel Committee.

The beauty is that most of Ishiguro’s prose has been translated into Russian, and the cult “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go” have been filmed. “At the End of the Day” (under this title the film was released in Russia) was nominated for eight Oscars, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The less successful film Never Let Me Go starred Charlotte Rampling, Keira Knightley and young Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield.