Familiar and young

The Council of Experts of the National Literary Prize "Big Book" announced a short list of the 16th season

Of the 40 works included in the Long List, only 13: “Garden” of Marina Stepnova, “Wound” Oksana Vasyakina, “Schulz Archive” Vladimir Papernaya, “Eternal Merzlot” Viktor Remizov, “Koka” Mikhail Gigolashvili, “Excipement of the island” Yevgeny Vyverns, Yuri Buida, “desire to be a desire to be. city ​​”Dmitry Bavilsky,“ Leskov. The missed genius ”of Maya Kucheskaya,“ Philelin ”by Leonid Yuzefovich,“ This shore ”by Andrei Dmitriev,“ RIF ”by Alexei Polyarinov and“ Simon ”Narine Abgaryan.

The entire short list can conditionally be divided into two camps: young writers and those who have already become a contender for the prize.

For example, Narine Abgaryan , whose autobiographical story “Mannyun” in 2011 entered the Long List “Big Book”, claims to win with the novel “Simon” . This is a story about a mason from the Armenian town, at the funeral of which five women who loved him gather. There was a touching philosophical story about the inception of meetings and partings.

The action of the novel by the writer and screenwriter Andrei Dmitriev “This shore” takes place in Ukraine, where his hero Ladozhkin, a school teacher in retirement, runs from Russia to start a new life. Dmitriev is also not the first time among the finalists of the Big Book - in 2012, his novel “Peasant and Teenage” claimed to win along with the texts of Daniil Granin and Marina Stepnova.

And Marina Stepnova , who received the third prize for the novel “Women of Lazarus” in 2012, in the new season “Big Book” presented a promising “Garden” for an expert court - a fascinating journey to Russia of the XIX century. The main character of the novel is the girl Tusya, who spits on conventions imposed on her by the rules of the ossified society. Her mother, Princess Boryatinskaya, is ready for everything for the sake of the happiness of her daughter - but what can unconditional parental love turn into? By the way, Stepnova promised that the novel “The Garden” will have a continuation, which she is currently working on.

It is impossible to imagine a short list of “BC” without two names: Evgeny Vodolazkin and Leonid Yuzefovich. These writers rightfully occupy honorary places in literary prizes, and a long history connects them with a “big book”.

Yuzefovich twice became the winner of the award: in 2009, he was awarded for the novel Cranes and dwarfs, and in 2016-for the Winter Road. And this year, experts could not ignore his monumental historical work “Philelin” - about the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire.

Evgeny Vodolazkin is generally a record holder in the number of nominations - his Lavr novels (2013) and Aviator (2016) won the Big Book Award, and Soloviev and Larionov (2010) and Brisben (2019) reached the final. In the current short-list, its “justification of the island ” is a reflection on the essence of time and meaning of history.

Traditionally, there is in a short list and ZhZL-this season it is a documentary novel “Leskov. The lacked genius » Maya Kucheskaya . The book is addressed to a wide range of readers - not only the philologists interested in Persona Leskov. Kucheskaya wrote a fascinating study of the writer’s life - contradictory, but bright. By the way, in 2013, Kucherian’s novel “Aunt Motya” was awarded the prize of the BC reader voting.

Another of those who have already found themselves in the short and long lists of the Big Book are applying for a prize

• Dmitry Bavilsky (“Angels in the first place”, Long list 2006),

• Yuri Buida (Third Prize "BC" for the novel "Thief, Spy and Killer", 2013)

• and Victor Remizov ("free will", finalist of 2014).

Perhaps the most unobvious name in the current short list of “BC” is a honored writer and culturalist Vladimir Paperny . His novel “Schulz Archive” stands as if apart, but fully complies with the expectations of experts and the requirements of “BC”: this is an intellectual novel that can apply for the title of the best prose work written in Russian.

But from the recent finalists of National Best in the final, only the “Coca” Mikhail Gigolashvili (laureate “BC” for the novel “The Damn Wheel”, 2010) was in the final. Neither Pavel Zhang and other river creatures "of Vera Bogdanova, nor the winner of the" National Best "Alexander Pelevin with" Pokrov-17 "into the short list of" Big Book "broke out.

But from the young authors, Oksana Vasyakin and her debut novel “Wound” were deservedly noted - one of the most important texts written in Russian in a long time. According to the plot, the young poetess goes to Siberia to bury the urn with the ashes of her mother. A long journey turns into a study of itself, its own boundaries, an appeal to the past, a comprehension of death.

The name of another young and talented writer is in a short list. This is Alexei Polyarinov with his “Reef” -a multilayer novel-research of modern sects.

Perhaps this is one of the most harmonious short lists in a long time - each of the authors can compete for victory. It is difficult to give preference to someone-the more interesting the results and more convincing the recommendation lists will be.

The winners of the “Big Book - 2021” will be announced in December, they will be determined by the vote of members of the Literary Academy.

Author - editor -in -chief of the book service MyBook