Prizes and protests
The arrival of the first book from publishers Glagoslav (http://www. glagoslav.com/) was one of festive February’s quieter events, but it may have more of an impact in the long term. Managing director Maxim Hodak says told me they’re hoping to translate and publish up to 35 Russian novels over the next couple of years, bringing English readers some of the biggest names in contemporary Russian writing. Their first offering, Yelena Chizhova’s “The Time of Women,” is a moving account of 1960s Soviet life mixed with fragmented memories from the Siege of Leningrad; it won the 2009 Russian Booker Prize.
The first woman to win the Russian Booker, Lyudmila Ulitskaya (who won with “The Kukotsky Case” in 2001), flew over recently from Moscow for Jewish Book Week near King’s Cross to talk about another of her award-winning novels, “Daniel Stein, Interpreter.” This postmodern patchwork of documents got the 2007 Big Book prize and was shortlisted for the Booker of the Decade.
Ulitskaya is currently fired up by the election protests in Moscow, which she described as having “an incredible atmosphere... [It] was the first time I had seen people mocking power in Russia.” There have been parallel protests in London and even a “Citizen Poet” concert, organized by tycoonin- exile Yevgeny Chichvarkin. Based on the series in Moscow and scheduled for just before the Russian elections, this crowd-pulling event in the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre offered champagne, canapes and critical satire.
Russian bookstore
Another promising culture/food combo is arriving in early March. A Russian bookstore has opened inside Alexander Mamut’s flagship Waterstones store on Piccadilly. The official launch party will be catered by Mari Vanna (http:// www.marivanna.co.uk/), a topend restaurant with branches in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York and (now) Knightsbridge. Liberal author and journalist Dmitry Bykov will be signing books there March 3.
Kristina Moskalenko, a correspondent for London’s Russianlanguage Angliya newspaper told me recently: “With everything that’s going on, it’s almost more fun living here now than in Moscow.” She mentioned upcoming performances by DDT and Zemfira, a ballet evening in celebration of Anna Pavlova and a Russian comedy competition. For next month, I’m looking forward to seeing (and reporting on) a bevy of the latest Russian dramatical productions to hit London theaters.
Перевод статьи
Название: Русские блины, книги и Быков
Автор: Фоби Таплин
Источник: «Московские новости», ежедневная российская общественно-политическая газета (Статья на английском)
Дата публикации: 20:19 01.03.2012
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