Alexandra Marinina: biography, family and education, literary career, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Alexandra Marinina is a famous Russian writer, author of detective novels. Her most famous character is the intelligent and thinking detective Anastasia Kamenskaya, whose adventures have been repeatedly filmed. The heroine of our article compares favorably with other detective authors by the absence of ideal heroes in her books, by subtle psychologism. It is interesting that, as a rule, the capture of the criminal does not become the center of the novel, the writer is much more interested in exploring human relationships. Currently, her works have been translated in forty countries around the world into 28 languages.

Childhood and youth

Aleksandra Marinina was born in Lvov in what is now Ukraine in 1957. We note right away that the name by which she is known to us is a literary pseudonym. In fact, her name is Marina Anatolyevna Alekseeva.

BiographyAlexandra Marinina is directly related to law enforcement service. Her grandfather and father worked there, who was an employee of the criminal investigation department. In particular, the father of the heroine of our article specialized in solving museum and apartment thefts. The mother of the writer was also not far from jurisprudence, as she taught it at the university.

Alexandra Marinina's childhood passed in Leningrad, after her father was transferred to the Moscow Department of Criminal Investigation.

Education

The future writer graduated from a special school with in-depth study of the English language, at the same time she learned to play musical instruments. Interestingly, as a child, Alexandra Marinina wanted to become a film critic, but the legal environment played a decisive role.

In 1979, she became a student at the law faculty of Moscow State University. After successfully graduating from high school, she is assigned to the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There she goes from an ordinary laboratory assistant to a senior researcher, even defending her Ph. D. thesis.

In the mid-90s, the heroine of our article works on the basis of the Moscow Law Institute, which has now received the status of an academy. In 1998, she officially retired with the rank of police lieutenant colonel. At the same time, she never worked "in the fields", but was engaged in analytics, criminology, forecasting, studied the identities of criminals.

Creative debut

Practicethe heroine of our article began literary work during her vacation in 1991. Over time, she became so successful that the circulation of her works broke all conceivable records.

Her creative debut was a story called "Six-winged Seraphim", which was published in the specialized magazine "Police", which was published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Soon this was followed by the first novel of the writer "Coincidence", in which she spoke about the current state of law enforcement, talked about the further ways of developing the system.

Her next piece was called "The Stolen Dream". However, the magazine refused to print it, as the author had exceeded the established volume. Perhaps Marinina's passion would have come to naught if the very first issue of the magazine had not fallen into the hands of a large and reputable publisher. They offered the writer to print her first book. As a result, her former boss became a literary agent, and the writer started her own website on the Internet to communicate directly with fans.

Features of works

Readers and critics note that in her books Alexandra Marinina never describes cases from her own practice, does not use specific and often secret official information.

At the same time, she admits that she is frankly flattered when prosecutors or judges note how accurately and professionally her characters act, in this regard, she manages to achieve maximum realism.

In fact,which really took place, only one detective novel by the writer called "The Illusion of Sin" is based. And even then this is not a case from her practice, but a story described in detail by journalists in a newspaper.

Anastasia Kamenskaya

The main character of most of Marinina's works is a police colonel, analyst and operative Anastasia Kamenskaya. According to the author, she has many of her personal traits, almost 90 percent of Kamenskaya is written off from herself.

This heroine has been loved by many millions of readers over the years. Especially after Marinina's novels were filmed. On the TV screen, the image of the detective was brought to life by the People's Artist of Russia Elena Yakovleva.

For the first time Kamenskaya appears in the novel "Coincidence". Then she becomes the key character in a whole series of books that were filmed. These are "The Black List", "Reluctant Killer", "Requiem", "Don't interfere with the executioner". The series was constantly updated with new works.

Many texts by Marinina attracted the attention of experts. Thus, the novel "Murderers involuntarily" was used in studies on the development and trends in modern Russian prose, and for the book "Death for the sake of death" she received an award from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The book was about the mysterious murders at the research institute.

Divisional Doroshin

Early 2000years, the district police officer Doroshin comes to replace Kamenskaya. According to Marinina herself, she was simply bored with her.

Doroshin becomes the protagonist of a series of books called "The Crimes of the Right Life". These include the novels "It's Wrong", "The Feeling of Ice", "Replacing the Object". By the way, because of the last book on this list, Marinina even had a conflict with the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs, as professional law enforcement agencies saw misconduct in Doroshin's actions and presented reasonable claims to the author.

The novel "Feeling of Ice" tells about two brothers who are trying to save each other after a murder. Literary critics noted that with this book the author tried not only to talk about the crime, but also to speak out about the stereotyped thinking that is often found in the modern world.

A look from eternity

In 2000, the heroine of our article becomes a well-known writer, photos of Alexandra Marinina are constantly published in the media. In 2009-2010, she releases a new cycle of works "The View from Eternity". It includes three detective novels that are strikingly different from all her previous works.

The final part of this trilogy "Hell" even wins the "Electronic Letter" award as the best domestic prose work of the year.

Dialogue "Personal motives" receives the second prize of the samecompetition as the best bestseller and detective in 2011. Marinina herself is recognized as the leader in terms of sales in the country among all writers.

At the same time, it is worth noting that she finally decided not to refuse the image of Kamenskaya, returning to her from time to time. However, in the detective story "Life after Life" sends the heroine to retire with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The real bestseller of 2012 is the book "Tiger Fight in the Valley", and a year later the novel "Last Dawn" is published, which becomes an original combination of philosophical reflections and fascinating intrigue. A new central character appears here - Anton Stashis.

In 2014, Marinina returns Kamenskaya in the works "Execution without malice" and "Angels on ice do not survive." In them, she already appears as a private investigator.

In 2016, the Reverse Force trilogy appears on the shelves of bookstores. In it, the writer describes several generations of the life of one family. This time, instead of a detective story, Marinina offers her readers a psychological saga with reflections on life values. The novel caused mixed and conflicting reviews.

Quest

In 2018, the heroine of our article writes one of her most unusual novels. Alexandra Marinina named it "The Bitter Quest". Volume 1 was released on August 25th. In preparation for writing this work, she specially collected focus groups, which included young people who had never lived in the Soviet Union. She wanted to know what they would have done if they had ended up in the USSR in the 70s of the last century.

According to the plot of the book, several girls and boys are selected for a trip to the 1970s. They fall into the time of developed socialism, read Gorky's plays.

Since the release of the first part, fans have been waiting for the continuation of the novel "The Bitter Quest" from Alexandra Marinina. Volume 2 has just appeared in print.

Family

It is known that personal life plays a big role in the biography of Alexandra Marinina. Her first husband was a detective about whom little is known except that they worked together.

Her current husband's name is Sergei Sharpening, he is an assistant professor at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, a police colonel. When they met, he had his own family, as soon as his son turned 18, he divorced his wife and went to the writer.

A Persian cat and two St. Bernards live at the couple's house. The writer collects bells. Interestingly, her favorite detective stories are novels by writers Camilla Lackberg, Henning Mankell and Yu Nesbe.

A. Marinina and Sergei Sharpening never had children of their own.

Such is the biography and personal life of Alexandra Marinina, the heroine of our article.