Purportedly inspired by the US Great Books project of the 1920s, Vladimir Putin has proposed a 100 book canon of required Russian reading for every graduate.
Demand to Ban Marquez, Nabokov from Russian High Schools
A senior Russian Orthodox official insists that novels by Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez should be banned from Russia’s high schools.
The Perfect Summer Read: PP’s Project D’ Starts ‘The Brothers Karamazov’
By Dennis Abrams Looking for the perfect summer read? Something that will sweep you away to another time and place, something you can really sink your teeth into, something that’s not another dark and twisted Scandinavian murder mystery? Do I have an idea for you. Its got murder, an investigation, and a trial. Its got sex. Its got jealousy. Its …
Russia’s Literary Monster: The Wild, Unpredictable World of Vladimir Sorokin
A “living classic,” Sorokin pushes boundaries by writing about a Russia rife with violence, coprophilia, violence, rape, violence, aliens, violence, clones and more violence. He makes his American debut in New York this weekend at the PEN World Voices Festival. By Daniel Kalder At the London Book Fair earlier this month, Russia was featured as Guest of Honor. Nearly every Russian …
Sakkadoo: Russia’s Boris Akunin on “The Way of the Writer”
Russian novelist Grigory Chkhartishvili, a.k.a. Boris Akunin, is an international publishing phenomenon. A scholar of Japanese language and culture, and a former literary translator, he wrote his first novel, The White Queen — starring the now famous literary detective Erast Fandorin — at the age of 40. In the 13 years since its publication, Akunin has sold tens of millions …