Russian Literature Week kicks off in London
Published: 21 April, 2009, 16:37
AFP Photo / Carl de Souza
This year, for the second time, Russia is represented at the London Book Fair, opening Monday April 20. Six award-winning Russian authors have come to the British capital to present their latest works.
To coincide with this event, Russian Literature Week has opened in London. For six days, Europe's largest bookshop – Waterstone's on Piccadilly – will host lectures and meetings with Russian writers, critics, and translators, to offer a taste of what Russian literature is all about right now.
Taking part in the Book Fair are Lyudmila Ulitskaya, recently listed for the Booker International prize, and two winners of the Russian Booker, Vladimir Makanin ('Asan') and Olga Slavnikova ('2017').
Dmitry Bykov will personally present his novel 'ZhD', which in English will it seems be titled 'Jewhad'. The Guardian quotes Bykov as saying that it’s a "fiercely Russophobic and fiercely anti-Semitic [novel], depicting both Russians and Jews as virus nations which bring misfortune and decay to whatever they're trying to colonise".
Prose works by Mikhail Shishkin, Alexandr Terekhov, historian and publicist Aleksandr Arhangelsky, as well as poetry by Mario Petrucci, Maria Galina, Arkady Shtypel and Dmitry Bykov will complete the picture of modern literature in Russia.
The head of the Academia Rossica cultural organisation Svetlana Adzhubei, who was behind the idea of the Russian pavilion launching at the London Book Fair, told RIA Novosti that all these authors already have preliminary arrangements for their latest novels to be translated and published in English.
On Wednesday, April 22, the organisers of Russian Literature Week will announce the short-list of nominations for the Rossica Translation Prize, awarded for the best translation of a Russian book into English. The winner will be named in May.
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