Yes, non

We often talk about the environment. The fact that an important cause of educational activity, except for the need to explain what science is doing, is the creation and expansion of this very environment. At the Non/Fiction exhibition, this environment is. The exhibition is an almost perfect community in miniature. Although 30 thousand people in five days are not such a miniature. People at Non/Fiction - the main thing. Free, thinking, reading, able to communicate and formulate, do not accept everything on faith, different and at the same time with something common at the level of basic values. An important marker of the existence of a community, solidarity and just the ability to empathize is attention to Lena Makeenko, literary criticism, editor of the regiment project, and the author of the Gorky portal. Lena is fighting cancer and for treatment we need a lot of money that gathered during the exhibition1 . At the non -Nonfica, it seems that you know everyone, they smile, greet, discuss, think and apologize if they are torn in the crowd. The exhibition is 20 years old and, it seems, this is the last year in the central house of the artist on the Crimean Val. Next year we will meet in the arena, and I really want to not disappear, not dissolve in the huge Open-Space of the new site, which has grown and matured for two decades. Wednesday.

The second on non/fiction - of course, books. Publishers print the best to the exhibition, reserve potential bestsellers and just important texts. They are preparing to receive the most dear guest reading a person. Alpina Non-Fixes brought ten new products to the exhibition. Three of them scattered like flowers on March 8. Number one - “Biology of Good and Evil. As science explains our actions, ”Robert Sapolski, a biologist, a primatologist and a stress specialist - a book of the year, according to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal , the New York Times bestseller. Large -scale work in all respects - from volume (almost 800 pages) to the latitude of coverage (all the most terrible and beautiful in a person). “Biology of Good and Evil” is quite capable of changing the attitude towards neuronas with the reader. Sapolski managed to show that it is exciting and not insanely difficult. Attracting many scientific disciplines, the author tries to answer the fundamental question: what makes people harm or help each other? What is due to our behavior, our love and violence, altruism and inhumanity, distrust and forgiveness ... This book is a strictly scientific, accessible and with humor written a guide to our brain, nervous system, hormones, evolution and the world surrounding us. In five days of the exhibition, more than 500 copies were sold. More than a hundred per day. An excellent start and endless gratitude to our readers who were not frightened of an awesome volume. The book was translated by Elena Naimark and Julia Abolina, scientific editing - Daniil Markova.

The second hit of the Alpina Non-Fixes became “Templars: the birth and death of the Great Order” of the British historian Dan Jones. The order, of course, attracts everyone. In his history (from birth on the lands of Palestine to monstrously brutal extermination in France) there are so many secrets, smoke curtains, conspiracies and conspiracyology that the Teutons and the Maltese remains silently envious. Almost 500 books were sold at the exhibition. The topic expectedly attracted “city crazy” in homeopathic dilution, nevertheless falling at the exhibition. One was definitely one. He said that “the Order of the Eastern Temple is looking at Alpina” and everything will be in order with us. Well ok. Translation by Natalia Narcisova.

The third demon at the exhibition was the new Mitio Kaku “The Future of mankind. Colonization of Mars, traveling to the stars and gaining immortality. ” Following Karl Sagan, the world -famous popularizer of science, physicist and one of the co -authors of string theory directly say that we have time. It's time to colonize space. In the “future of mankind” year after year, a century after the century Kaku creates a “road map” of the greatest future resettlement in the history of mankind. Through the development of Mars, the creation of gas stations on comets of the Oort cloud before meeting with the alien mind and gaining immortality (by 2100) as an important condition for the development of the Universe. The advanced cosmic ideas of Bezos, Mask, Brin and Milner are detailed and critically examined. Mitio Kaku comes up with, in fact, a new worldview, a program and new meanings of the human future. Kaku is ideal for entering the world of popular science literature. He is adored by adolescents (he knows how to speak with them) and people who are interested in the future of our species, but far from physics and astronomy (he explains it). Translation by Natalia Lisova.

Gannibal’s oath: the life and war of the greatest enemy of the Roman Republic ”historian John Prevas, who tried to cleanse Hannibal’s story from Roman propaganda and show the great commander of antiquity as he actually was. The book was translated by Daria Petushkova and Yegor Pozdnyakov. The reprint of the book “The Origin of the Language. Facts, research, hypotheses ”Svetlana Burlak, linguist, doctor of philological sciences. Compared to the 2011 publication (the book was published in Corpus) there is a lot of updated data in each chapter, a whole new chapter and an amazing illustrative series created specifically for this book. The new books of the most famous scientist, the physicist of Lawrence Kraus, enjoyed increased attention “Why are we existing? The greatest of the stories ever told ”and the British popularizer of mathematics, professor of the Mathematical Institute of the University of Ian Stuart“ Significant figures. Life and discoveries of great mathematicians. " Many of the books listed here are supported by “Book projects of Dmitry Zimin” and the Trajectory Foundation. Such support is a guarantee of the quality of texts. Well, a decrease in publishing risks, of course.

Photo by Kirill Sokolov

The third important component of Non/Fiction is lectures, presentations and discussions. This time we organized six events as part of the exhibition. There were many readers at all events. I will note the lecture of Stanislav Drobyshevsky according to the book “Tales from the grotto. 50 stories from the life of ancient people ”(released in conjunction with the“ postnyuk ”), the smartest Andrei Zhuravlev, the author of the book“ Creation of the Earth. How living organisms created our world ”, laureate of the Enlightener-2018 Award and the author“ From atoms to tree. Introduction to the modern science of life ”by Sergei Yastrebov and the bright lively conversation of the four linguists - Svetlana Burlak, Vladimir Alpatov, Alexander Pipersky and Irina Levontina.

The Non/Fiction exhibition is beautiful. I am sure wherever she went, the spirit of freedom, the thirst for knowledge and self -knowledge will not disappear anywhere, just as incredibly smart and competent readers, communication with which gives a clear understanding: we are doing not in vain. Our work is appreciated. And we appreciate you, readers.

Pavel Podkosov,
General Director of Alpina Non-Fikhn Publishing House

1 Help Lena Makeenko can be here: Makeenko.win