The best modern novels. Modern Russian novels

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

For an inexperienced reader, modern novels are a unique opportunity to plunge headlong into the whirlpool of intense events of modern life through literary works of this genre. Due to the fact that this genre of modern prose tries to fully satisfy the needs of all readers, its diversity is impressive. It is constantly developing, improving, delighting the public with new ideas and names. The works of contemporary authors are rapidly becoming popular, gathering hundreds of thousands, millions of admirers, competing with the classics.

Modern prose is multifaceted

One can endlessly list the generally recognized masters of today's prose: Camus, Pelevin, Anders and others. Their modern novels diverge in huge circulations, making their creators famous all over the world, many of them become the basis for a variety of cinematic research. Modernity does not have strict censorship; the reader himself acts as a demanding critic, carefully selecting from all the proposedbooks are the most valuable and interesting. Modern novels describe not only the unvarnished realities of modern life, they are so multifaceted that absolutely all genres are reflected in them - detective, fantasy, adventure and love.

The work of a novelist

The work of a novelist is no different from any other human activity. At the source of the idea (the novels of modern authors are no exception) lies the irresistible desire of the author to tell about something or to express something. In other words, a modern novel is not just a thick book with a decent number of characters, but such an inspired text, the process of working on which changes the author himself, reveals something in him that he had not thought about before or did not suspect. Unfortunately, in modern literature, short modern testimonial novels are on the verge of extinction, since these projects are always laborious. And the role of a witness to history has long been entrusted to memoirists. In addition, the somewhat belated feminization of literature has led to the fact that the ability of the author to squeeze tears out of readers becomes the main criterion for success and professional suitability. But after all, the quality of works can be determined only by the number of goosebumps caused. And a select few writers are undeniably successful, including: Haruki Murakami, Bernard Werber, Janusz Wisniewski, Erica L. James, Jodi Picoult, Viktor Pelevin, and many more.

Russian literary works

Modern Russian novels are all the same literary narrative works,which have a limited maximum allowable size. Their content traditionally includes a very significant period of time and describes the life stories of several acting characters in an event series. Art in Russia (including literature) has been considered “intelligent” from time immemorial, unfortunately, now it is turning into a hobby. Modern authors do not live by their creations, they only get carried away depending on the degree and speed of development of their talent. Some are attracted only by significant financial grants and the possibility of publication in world-famous collections, which means fame. However, writers in our country have not died out, the modern Russian novel is alive and developing.

Women novelists are sentimental generators

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Project: "The Green Tent" is a novel about true love, about different destinies, about original characters. In fact, this is a real strong psychological prose. And at the same time, this new work by Ulitskaya is much wider than these clear definitions.

The second novel by this author also deserves close attention - "Medea and her children". The content of the work is a well-known myth turned inside out about the passionate Colchis princess Medea, about generosity and mercy, which manifest themselves in the same places on the Crimean coast.

Ulitskaya's next equally interesting modern Russian novel - "Sincerely yours Shurik" - confirmed her talent as a novelist, while emphasizing novelty favorablychosen novel form, which absolutely no one expected from the recognized "sentimental generator". L. Ulitskaya is characterized by the adaptation of the classical novel form to the newfangled literary habits of "light consumption", which translates her author's style into a more accessible language of the current culture.

Maya Kucherskaya

The author is a leading prose writer, along with this literary critic; author of the book "God of Rain", which received the "Student Booker" award, and the novel "Modern Patericon. Reading for the Dejected", which was awarded the "Bunin Prize". The new work "Aunt Motya" is a description of an excerpt from the life of the main character Marina, who in the past was a teacher of Russian and literature, and now works as a proofreader for a weekly newspaper. She, dry and weary of life, one day becomes the epicenter of a developing romantic relationship, with all the consequences accordingly.

Marina Stepnova

This is the author of the book "Women of Lazarus" (which has a short list of awards "National Bestseller", "Big Book", "Russian Booker", "Yasnaya Polyana"). Her works are published with great enthusiasm by newfangled thick magazines, while Marina is a talented stylist and competent editor-in-chief of a well-known men's magazine. In her new novel The Surgeon, the reader is presented with the story of the life of a gifted plastic surgeon Arkady Khripunov in close quarters.intertwined with the story of Hassan ibn Sabbah, the prophet and founder of the Nizari-Islamist state of the 11th century.

Men's premium brand

Viktor Pelevin

This is a real high-quality premium brand on the conditional book market, because for all the years of publication of works it has proven itself impeccably. The books of this writer are read by absolutely everyone: students, oligarchs, housewives and politicians, and the President of the Russian Federation himself. They are readily quoted in the rating media, and in social networks, and at fashionable parties. His new work - the modern Russian novel "Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady" - is sure to become one of the most successful and outstanding events in the world of literature. After all, opening each of his books, the reader receives not only high-quality exemplary literature, but also the actual modernized philosophy of one of the most bold and original thinking people of our time.

Aleksey Ivanov

Author of a novel with the concretizing title "The Geographer Drank His Globe Away". It may seem that outwardly the plot of the book is everyday and uncomplicated: a young biologist Vitya Sluzhkin is forced to work as a simple geography teacher in one of the schools in Perm. He clashes with students, the head teacher, drinks wine, tries to improve relations with his wife and takes his baby daughter to kindergarten every day. He just lives. Even such seemingly ordinary everyday stories are based on modern novels.

Evgeny Vodolazkin

The author is a writer-philologist, a competent specialist on issues of ancient Russian literature andauthor of the short story "Soloviev and Larionov", an excellent collection of essays "Tool of Language" and many other books. His new novel "Laurel" tells the story of the life of a medieval doctor who, having a unique gift of healing, is unable to save his dying beloved, so he is going to go through the hard earthly path instead.

20 best foreign books of the 21st century

The "best modern novels" category would not be complete without the best foreign books:

• Middle Sex by Pulitzer Prize-winning Jeffrey Eugenides.
• "Kafka on the Beach" by Japanese writer-translator Haruki Murakami.
• Don't Let Me Go by Japanese-born British writer Kazuo Ishiguro.
• "The Short and Wonderful Life of Oscar Woh" by Dominican American writer Juno Diaz.
• "2666" by Chilean poet and prose writer Roberto Bolano.
• Cloud Atlas by English novelist David Mitchell.
• The Road by American novelist and playwright Cormac McCarthy.
• "Austerlitz" by the German poet, prose writer and essayist W. G. Sebald.
• The Atonement by Somerset Maugham Prize-winning British writer Ian McEwan.
• The Wind Runner by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini.
• "The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" by American writer and screenwriter Michael Chabon.
• "Corrections" by American author of numerous novels and essays Jonathan Franzen.
• "White Teeth" by English writer Zadie Smith.

Not the latest popular

The list, titled "Best Contemporary Novels", also includes the following books: a collection of short stories by trend setter of non-genre prose Kelly Link "It's all very strange", "The Known World" by the famous American writer Edward P. Jones, "The Bastion of Solitude by American-born Jonathan Lethem, It's Time to Lead the Horses Out by Norwegian author Per Petterson, Pastoralia. Devastation in Civil War Park by essayist and screenwriter George Saunders.