National Bestseller Award Ends 2022 Season With Sort of a Shortlist

In an unusual but – considering the times – unsurprising turn of events, the National Bestseller Award announced a six-book shortlist on April 11, adding that no prize will be awarded this year. Vladislav Tolstov’s commentary on the shortlist (which he says, in my paraphrase, is not so much a shortlist as final ratings of books that attracted jurors’ attention) ends with uncertainty about the future of NatsBest.

Have written (and attempted to digest) that, I think I’ll just stick to what we know, which is that the six books I’ll list below tallied the most points when NatsBest’s “big jury” voted. I’ll also remind readers that the NatsBest site archives jury members’ reviews.

Here’s the not-a-shortlist for 2022:

• Kirill Ryabov’s Фашисты (Fascists) is a collection of short stories. (7 points) 
• Sofia Sinitskaya’s Хроника Горбатого (The Hunchback’s Chronicle?) sounds like it combines history and fiction; it’s apparently set in Vyborg, a place I’ve ridden through on trains once or twice. (7 points)
• Islam Khanipaev’s Типа я (The first-person narrator constantly uses “типа,” which is like “like,” so maybe Like, Me or something similar, though this title makes my head ache!) is the diary of an eight-year-old boy trying to figure out the world. It was a NOS(E) Award shortlister last season. (7 points)
• Pavel Basinsky’s Подлинная история Анны Карениной (The Real Story of Anna Karenina) is apparently just what it purports to be. (6 points)
• Yulia Kisina’s Бубуш (Bubush) is an abstract, metaphysical sort of book… (6 points)
• Sergei Avilov’s Капибару любят все (Everybody Loves a/the Capybara, I guess?) involves a forty-year old man who goes to the Barents Sea with a woman. It sounds like there may not be any capybaras in the book. No wonder it totaled… (5 points) rather than 50!
  

 

Up Next: Well, yes, I think I’m back, at least sort of. I have been reading, albeit not at my usual pace and generally preferring novels that are heavy on plot since this year’s been a tough one from the very first week and never quite seems to get much easier. In any case, I do hope to at least write a roundup post soon! 

Disclosures and Disclaimers: The usual. And knowing a few people involved with some of these books.

The 2022 National Bestseller Award Nominees/Longlist

Every year I write about how much I enjoy sifting through the National Bestseller Award’s list of nominees (a.k.a. the longlist), which usually consists of several dozen books, most of which I’d never heard of. This year’s list, announced yesterday, fits the usual pattern, though I think I’ve read more of the nominees than usual. Two! My next post, in fact, will likely be about those books, which were two of my favorites from 2021. There are forty-seven NatsBest nominators this year and it appears there are forty-seven books nominated, about fifteen of them written by women.

I’ll start with the two books I’ve already read in full:

• Dmitry Danilov’s Саша, привет! (I hear this more as Hey, Sasha! than Hi, Sasha! for some reason) concerns a man who’s committed a moral crime and is being punished in an odd way. Danilov’s a favorite writer and the form, content, and absurdity of Hey, Sasha! hit me just right. 
• Kirill Ryabov’s 777, about a man who gets instantly rich when an ATM goes haywire, made me laugh out loud more than just about anything else (other than maybe Ulysses?) I’ve read in recent years. Absurdity wins the day again. (And I learned that “777” denotes more than just cheap wine. Having never been to Vegas, I had no idea.)

I’ve also read two nominees in part:

• Ksenia Burzhskaya’s Мой белый (My [Beloved Color] White, perhaps since white covers the whole spectrum?) is about a girl and her two mothers, who have broken up. I intend to finish reading.
• Timur Valitov’s debut novel, Угловая комната (The Corner Room), is about a young man who returns to his native city after his father dies (previous post).

And then there are forty-three more… There are so many – including so many by authors I know and/or have read – that I picked a few pretty randomly by scrolling up and down the page and pointing at the screen (while looking away!). It’s quite a variety:

• Having claimed randomness, I confess that I deviated on choosing this one: Sasha Filipenko’s Кремулятор (The Cremulator), which is in manuscript (and nominated by Vremya publisher Boris Pasternak), stood out because I had no idea what the title means, though the root is certainly a clue. Brrr!
• Vera Bogdanova’s Сезон отравленных плодов (literally something like The Season of Poisoned Fruits, I guess) isn’t quite out yet, though it’s on the way; I have no idea what it’s about but after reading Bogdanova’s Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures and translating a sample (previous post), I’m looking forward to it.
• The description of Aleksandr Velin’s Сердце Демидина (The Heart of Demidin or Demidin’s Heart?) is a bit vague: it’s apparently about the late USSR with a heavy dose of (European) myth mixed in. The KGB is mentioned in early pages I looked at online. So: ?
• Pavel Basinsky’s Подлинная история Анны Карениной (The Real Story of Anna Karenina) is apparently just what it purports to be.
• Valery Pecheikin’s Стеклянный человек (literally The Glass Person) is described (in a Russian phrase that I’ve translated) as “splendid intellectual standup where the topic is life itself.” Apparently brief essays/vignettes (as in his previous book, which I have) with a play at the end.
• Dasha Blagova’s Южный ветер (A Southern Wind? The Southerly Wind? Lots of options here…) is utterly mysterious; it’s only available in manuscript but a print version (with “18+” on the cover) is apparently on the way from a small publisher.
• Finally, Tatyana Mlynchik’s Ловля молний на живца (hm, I think I’ll go for the easy way out, though it’s probably not very correct: The Human Lightning Rod) is about a schoolgirl with enough electricity in her body that she can charge phones and other devices.

Up Next: Danilov and Ryabov.

Disclaimers and Disclosures: The usual, including knowing some of the nominators and nominees and having received electronic versions of a few of these books from authors or agents.

My Favorite Pelevin Wins 2021 NatsBest

I missed yesterday’s NatsBest Award news thanks to not one but two Internet outages (!) so was pleased to learn this morning that Alexander Pelevin won the 2021 prize for his Pokrov-17. Video of the ceremony has not yet been posted but according to RG.RU, each jury member voted for a different finalist (there were six of each!), leaving the honorary (nonvoting) jury chair, Grigory Ivliev, to break the tie. I haven’t read any of the books on the shortlist – which look especially decent this year – but thoroughly enjoyed Pelevin’s The Four and Kalinova Yama so am looking forward to this one.  

For more on how this happened: Mikhail Vizel for Год литературы

 

Disclaimers and Disclosures: Nothing but the usual this time?

Up Next: They’re piling up. Natalya Baranskaya’s A Week Like Any Other, which was just the thing during a particularly harried recent week. Svetlana Kuznetsova’s The Anatomy of the Moon, which I’m translating and enjoying for the third time but still don’t know how to write about. And Eugene (Zhenya!) Vodolazkin’s The History of Island, which I’m rereading the way it should be read – slowly – which means I’m appreciating it even more the second time around. I also just started Lidia Charskaya’s Lidia Записки институтки, about a girl who’s sent to a private school at a tender young age. The Big Book finalist announcement is coming soon, too.

The 2021 NatsBest Shortlist

Well, that seemed to happen fast: The National Bestseller Award announced its six-book shortlist last week. I’m so behind on new releases that I haven’t studied up much on some of these titles. So no time like this chilly spring day to learn a bit more.

• Mikhail Gigolashvili’s Кока (Koka) (10 points) is the only book I know much of anything about. It’s a continuation (of sorts?) of The Devil’s Wheel (previous post), which I loved so very much about ten years ago. A friend just bought Koka and I’m looking forward to hearing her thoughts. (I was going to order it a couple weeks ago myself but it sold out!)
• Alexander Pelevin’s Покров-17 (Pokrov-17) (8 points) is set in the Kaluga area in 1993 but the action somehow connects to a World War 2 battle. Pelevin loves playing with time like this, which is one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed two of his books (The Four) and (Kalinova Yama) so much. I’ve actively avoided learning more about Pokrov-17 before reading.
• Vera Bogdanova’s Павел Чжан и прочие речные твари (Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures) (7 points) sounds scarily intriguing, with its digital concentration camp and “total chipization.” I’ve seen lots of praise for this book and am looking forward to reading it.
• Mrshavko Shtapich’s Плейлист волонтера (A/The Volunteer’s Playlist) (6 points) is, according to nominator Yulia Selivanova’s text, “a contradictory book” thanks to its narrator’s depiction of his own deviant behavior, which contrasts with media characterizations of idealized volunteers. Nonfiction. One NatsBest juror, Mitya Samoilov, called it a “guilty pleasure.” Juror Denis Epifantsev says it’s the best book he’s read this year and compares Shtapich to Hunter S. Thompson. (!)
• Daniel Orlov’s Время рискованного земледелия (A/The Time of Risky Arable Farming?) (5 points) is set in today’s Russia; Andrei Astvatsaturov’s nomination note calls it a “wonderful example of contemporary realistic, social prose,” going on to note dynamic plot lines. I love the thought of dynamic plot lines and arable farming in one book.
• Ivan Shipnigov’s Стрим (Stream) (5 points) sounds like a polyphonic, “verbatim” book about life among young (Russian) adults. Given that Shipnigov is a screenwriter, this may be a book where the verbatim approach actually works.

So there you have it. These six books sound like a pretty decent lot, though (here comes my perennial gripe) I’m disappointed there aren’t more books written by women. Which means I’m going to order up a few from the longlist that sound good but didn’t make the shortlist. This seems to have become an annual ritual.

Just a reminder that the NatsBest site has an archive of reviews/opinions written by “Big Jury” members (here) and that their votes are archived as well (here). The winner will be selected on some future day at some future time. (Translation: I didn’t see a date mentioned for the ceremony.)

Up Next: The Big Book longlist. My reread of Vodolazkin’s Island. Another book to reread, which finally arrived in a printed copy.

Disclaimers and Disclosures: The usual, with some familiar names on the nominator, author, and jury lists.

 

The 2021 National Bestseller Award Longlist/Nominees

I’ve written many times about how much I love literary award longlists so it will come as no surprise that I was happy to see last week’s announcement of this year’s nominees (a.k.a. longlist) for the National Bestseller Award. The NatsBest list is always especially interesting because it includes nominators’ names. You can find the list of nominators and nominees here. Or click on book covers here to read nominators’ notes. This year, 43 books were nominated. I won’t list them all (and I’m avoiding reading too much about some of them, lest I spoil the plots for myself or you) but here are a few, many of which I’d never heard of, which is, of course, why I love these lists so much.

• I’ve only read a little of Ksenia Buksha’s Адвент (Advent) but I do think it’s safe to say it offers scenes with a family – two parents and one child who’s opening windows on an advent calendar – as well as windows into the parents’ memories. I love Buksha’s sense of humor, formal shifts, and play with language so am crossing my fingers that the book holds together! (Based on what I’ve heard, I’m pretty sure it will but I’ve jinxed myself too many times in the past…) (Nominator: Polina Boyarkina)
• I have an electronic copy of Inga Kuznetsova’s Изнанка (Inside Out, in Muireann Maguire’s as-yet-unpublished translation), which is told from the point of view of none other than the COVID-19 virus. I’ve read the beginning and am not sure that’s my thing (I’ve gone on record before saying I’m not good with books where the subject matter is this up-to-the-minute/in-the-news) but I’ll give it another try or two or three because I so enjoyed Inga’s Intervals. (Nominator: Igor Voevodin)
• Alla Gorbunova, who won the NOSE Award last week, has a new book coming out: Другая материя (Other Matter?). (Nominator: Julia Goumen)
• I was very excited to see Mikhail Gigolashvili’s Кока (Koka) on the list: it apparently continues the adventures of a character from Gigolashvili’s Четрово колесо (The Devil’s Wheel), which I loved so very much some years ago (previous post). (Nominator: Elena Shubina)
• Sergei Volkov’s Ильич (Ilich) sounds like a book about the nineties that includes a Lenin statue. I lived across from a Lenin statue for the 1992-1993 academic year so that’s a good start. (Nominator: Petr Shepin)
• Покров-17 (Pokrov-17 since it’s a toponym) sounds like another mystical, fast-paced novel from Alexander Pelevin. (Nominator: Anna Dolgareva)
• I did a doubletake when I saw the name Sergey Shoygu, who was nominated for a story collection, Про вчера (About Yesterday): Shoygu’s name has long been familiar since his resume includes stints as Russia’s Minster of Defense and Minister of Emergency Situations. (Nominator: Oleg Zobern, who writes that his grandmother and his friends enjoyed the stories, too.)

Although there are lots of other interesting titles by familiar authors, here are a few I’d never heard of that sound good in some way or other:

• Natalya Solovyova’s На берегу Тьмы (On the Bank of the Tma, which is a tributary of the Volga in the Tver area, those the word “тьма” carries other meanings, including “darkness,” “ignorance,” and, keeping things simple, “multitudes”) sounds like a historical novel based on true incidents; it’s set in the early twentieth century. (Nominator: Rusina Shikhatova)
• Павел Чжан и прочие речные твари (Pavel Chzhan and Other River Creatures, perhaps?) by Vera Bogdanova concerns digital concentration camp and “total chipization.” (Nominator: Alexei Portnov)
• Anton Sekisov’s Бог тревоги (The God of Anxiety or The Anxiety God, perhaps?) is a bit of a cheat since Sekisov was nominated for the NatsBest in 2019. I didn’t remember that, though, so here’s a new book, which is apparently about a young Moscow writer who moves to Petersburg and finds that his Wikipedia page says he’s died. (Nominator: Konstantin Tublin, who says the novel offers “an unexpected take on Petersburg metaphysics and Petersburg myths,” things I always seem to enjoy)

Up Next: Ksenia Buksha’s Advent or Eugene Vodolazkin’s History of Island.

Disclaimers and Disclosures: The usual. And knowing some of the nominators and authors (I’m especially happy for Gigolashvili!) and receiving electronic versions of the Kuznetsova book.