Romance with a secret

Those who remember the first months of the existence of “Itogi” may remember how a column called “Selected Places” tried to make its way here. This is what we called bright fragments from upcoming books by authors of interest to us. Books of fiction, documentary, essays - all kinds. The main thing is to make it interesting. Somehow the idea didn't work out. Now we are making a new attempt, believing that Boris Akunin, the author whom we follow with interest, is the very person with whom it is a good sign to start. Moreover, he “throws” at us all new turns of his tireless activity. As soon as he accustomed the reading public to his Fandorin, he had to switch to the nun Pelagia. As soon as you get used to it, a new project appears with the tempting name “The Adventures of the Master.” The first novel in this series has an intriguing name - “Altyn-tolobas”. We are happy to publish a chapter from it. But first, a few questions for the author, Grigory Chkhartishvili.

(Photo: Pavel Gorshkov )


- Grisha, I’m very glad to see you, but, excuse me, I came to talk to Mr. Akunin, if possible.
- Nobody wants to talk to me now. Everyone wants to talk to Akunin.

- But we talked not so long ago. I heard he started a new project, a new series. I would like to ask you what kind of project it is and how it differs significantly from previous ones.
- I wanted to write an “honest” detective story that doesn’t pretend to be literature. Without any stylistic games. To stay on the plot alone.

There are no games with style - one hundred grams of Dostoevsky, one hundred and fifty Leskov, and so on. It's not there. If, for example, the most literary of my series - about the nun Pelagia - is built on the idea that the reader gets the main pleasure not from the plot, but from the style (it worked, it didn’t work - that’s another question, but that was the idea), then here I wanted write the kind of book that I really loved as a child. This, strictly speaking, is not even a detective story, but a “novel with a mystery” - there is a subgenre of the adventure novel, which also has its own laws and rules. It starts quite slowly and operates on the principle of a whirlpool, when the water moves slowly along the edge, and the closer to the funnel, the faster and faster, so that it is no longer possible to stop. In addition, this time I wanted to write not about the 19th century, but about modernity. Which is very difficult.

- Not scary? After all, here, as they say, there is no crowding.
- Scary. Firstly, there really is no crowd, and secondly, no one here will take your word for it. Everyone can compare your feelings with their own.

- At what stage is the work? When will the first novel be published?
- The novel is about to be published by the Neva-Olma-Press publishing house. The publishing house is from St. Petersburg, although the novel is about Moscow.

I will continue this series. It’s easier to continue than, say, historical detective stories. Because when you don’t depend on style, you become less bored with it and don’t set your teeth on edge.

- Do you invent and write your novels sequentially or in parallel? Do you already know what your next novel will be?
- Of course I know. From a genre point of view, my project consists of three layers, three types of novels - “literary”, “semi-literary” and “non-literary”. I alternate between these types. Including so that you don’t get bored.

For myself, I define the new series as “non-literary.” The most “literary” is “Pelagia”. "Semi-literary" - about Fandorin. It is impossible to write about Erast Petrovich all the time. You get tired of this, you need to shuffle.

I, of course, know what the next novel about Pelagia will be, what the next two or three novels will be about the new hero - Nicholas. (Nicholas Fandorin is the grandson of Erast Petrovich, our contemporary.)

In this series I wanted to convey my own feeling of Moscow as a mystical city. Moscow is a big city, a city that has existed for a long time, a city in which so many people lived and died, and it is impossible to believe that nothing remains of them. I feel, especially in some places in Moscow, certain clots of energy.

- Yes, yes, me too...
- Artemy Lebedev, who makes my website on the Internet, found a very good move. He takes an old photograph of some Moscow street, photographs it from the same angle and layers one image on top of another. It turns out to be a crowd, where someone is wearing a denim jacket, and someone is wearing a hat with an ostrich feather. This very accurately conveys my feeling from Moscow. Moscow literally stands on its bones. She's all in cemeteries. Underneath there are underground passages, some secrets, buried basements - there’s just so much there. These are my feelings from this Moscow, my ideas about how times are connected, I wanted to convey in the first novel of my new series.

As for Erast Petrovich, when (and if) I decide to return to him, I have several interesting stories ready that I myself like.

- As far as I know, film adaptations of your works are being planned. Isn't this scary for you? After all, the usual experience of film adaptations is an inevitable downgrade.
- You see, from the very beginning I determined this thing for myself in relation to film adaptations. For me this is not the main direction. And I will only do this if I am sure that it will be done well. That this will be some kind of new benchmark for the domestic television series or for the domestic cinema. From the very beginning, I set rather strict and even arrogant conditions for those who wanted to enter into a contract with me. Therefore, I could not conclude such a contract for a long time. But nothing is better than bad.

-What are your impudent conditions?
- I insist, firstly, that there be a sufficient budget for the film. This is my first and main requirement. Second. I must write the script myself, and no corrections can be made there without my consent. And also the director and leading actor must be approved by me.

The first television company that signed an agreement with me on these terms was ORT, where they are now making a series based on Azazel. There will be four episodes. The script is already ready. The director, in my opinion, is wonderful - Alexander Adabashyan. In any case, it will be a quality movie. I'm interested in the combination of an intellectual director with the pulp genre.

- Who will play Erast?
- I don't know yet.

- OK. When should we expect it?
- As far as I understand, the series will be released next fall. In any case, I passed the script, and now nothing else depends on me. I did everything I could.