Translated material
Summer reading
What to take with you on the road, to the country, to the beach
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The bestseller of this summer was the first edition of Stefan Clark’s book “God, save America! Watching the Americans ” (Ripol Classic). Stefan Clark is a British journalist who arrived at work in Paris and remained there to live. Before becoming a writer, played in a rock band, worked as a grape collector, taught English. Two previous books "God, save France!" And "Oh God, Paris again!" They brought Clark fame, were translated into twenty languages and became a kind of living guide to France. This time the author opens America readers. He looks at her by the eyes of a European and is amazed at the non -standard thinking of Americans, shares his experience in highway, communicating with police and ordinary Americans.
One of the pleasant events is the reprint of the famous book of Alexander Genis “Dovlatov and the Evidence” (Corpus). The new edition is several times higher in volume of the previous ones - the book is supplemented by numerous memories and essays, developing, can even be said, eroding its boundaries. All of them are united in the section "Particular case". The heroes of the narrative were not only Sergey Dovlatov, with whom the author was friends, but also Andrei Bitov, Vagrich Bakhchanyan and others. Portrait-Reflection "Brodsky in New York" is considered a classic of the genre. Genis writes about the nature of humor Dovlatov, recreating the picture of the “golden period” of Russian emigration with several details.
Another example of the emigrant prose is the “Beloved Shadow” (AST) of the Kharkov citizen Yuri Miloslavsky living in America. In the novel - the details of life in emigration, relations with the KGB agents and human loneliness. Here he is similar to his fellow countryman, and in his youth and another Eduard Limonov. True, unlike the latter, the author himself claims that its main feature is “a complete refusal to introduce his own biography into the text.”
Of the detective novelties of the season, we note the novel by Jededai Berry “Textbook for the Detective” (AST). This is the debut of a 34-year-old American writer. The book has already been marked by several literary prizes. Critics compare the author with Kafka and Borges, and he himself refers us to “Alice in Wonderland” and the drawings of the writer and the mystifier artist Edward Gorus. The “Textbook for the Detective” combines elements of traditional detective history, science fiction and even fantasy. The hero of the book Clerk named Charles works in a detective agency in the city where it always rains. Under mysterious circumstances, his senior partner, a local celebrity suddenly disappears, and Charles has to take his place. Investigating the murders, the author suddenly catches himself on the feeling that all these stories are happening not only in real life, but also continue in a dream.
Dina Rubin released by summer a huge volume (976 pages) of her last three novels, calling all this by the trilogy “People of Air” (“Exmo”). This included the “handwriting of Leonardo”, “White Dove of Cordoba”, “Parsley Syndrome”. All three novels are a study of the deep psychology of creative, extraordinary people.
Fantasy lovers should be delighted with the release of the third book of Cassandra Claire “Twilight Hunters. Glass City ” (“ Ripol Classic ”). Two previous volumes of this story are “City of Bones” and “City of Poach”. For more than 20 weeks, the books were on the list of The New York Times. All volumes are quite voluminous, and they are quite enough for beach reading. The plot for fantasy is ordinary: a fifteen-year-old girl from New York Clary Frey found out that she was born a shadow hunter-a warrior whose purpose to cleanse the land from demons. For the sake of saving her mother, Clary is forced to go to the city of glass, a generic nest of hunters. And the appearance in this city without permission is a violation of the law, and the violation of the law is punishable by death, etc. etc. Some mixture of Twilight, Golden Compass and Harry Potter. Nevertheless, the book is read quite dynamic, and if all these demons, vampires and other evil spirits do not immediately repel you (and statistics say that even the most intellectual reader sometimes keeps such a reading under his pillow), then you are provided with entertainment for the summer.