Biography of Tatyana Tolstaya - the author of the novel "Kys"

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

In the most famous novel by Tatyana Tolstaya "Kys" one can find the words that a person is the crossroads of two abysses, which are equally bottomless and equally incomprehensible - this is the outer world and the inner world.

The biography of Tatyana Tolstaya is worthy of a separate story. It shows how the two abysses of the inner and outer worlds met and intertwined in her fate.

Tatyana Tolstaya was born on May 3, 1951 in Leningrad, a city on the Neva. Her surname speaks for itself - she is one of the many representatives of the Tolstoy clan, a direct descendant of the famous writer Alexei Tolstoy (granddaughter). Graduated from Leningrad University, Department of Classical Philology. In the year of graduation from the university (1974), Tatiana married Andrei Lebedev and moved with him to Moscow. In the capital, she got a job as a proofreader at the Nauka publishing house, at the Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature.

The biography of Tatyana Tolstaya walked along the knurled road of a girl from an intelligent family with literary roots. Perhaps she would have corrected other people's texts until a very old age, if not for the event that served as an impetus for her creative work. Early eightiesyears, she had to undergo an ophthalmic operation, after which she had to wear a blindfold for a month. There came a time of forced inaction, when it was impossible not only to work, but even just to read a book. And then the granddaughter of the author of "Peter the Great" and "Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid" began to invent plots for her own stories and novels. It was during this period of immersion in darkness that the writer Tatyana Tolstaya appeared.

Her biography in this new capacity began with the publication in 1983 of an article written in the genre of literary criticism called "Glue and scissors". At the same time (1983) the first literary story "They were sitting on the golden porch …" was published. From that moment on, Tatyana Nikitichna began to actively publish in literary magazines. In 1987, a collection of short stories "They were sitting on the golden porch …" was published, after which the "novice" writer was accepted by his colleagues into the Writers' Union.

The nineties, as the biography of Tatyana Tolstaya notes, passed with an English accent. From 1990 to 1999 she lived for long periods in America, where she taught, lectured and contributed to local magazines. Also at this time, Tatiana tries herself in journalism: she writes a column in Moscow News, works in the magazine Stolitsa. In parallel with this, her stories are published, some of them are translated into foreign languages. In 1999, the writer finally returns to her homeland.

Further biography of Tatyana Tolstaya develops under two signs: "Kys" and"School of slander". The novel "Kys", which was released in 2000, immediately became extremely popular. He received the "Triumph" award and the prize of the International Book Fair in Moscow. In 2002, our heroine became the head of the editorial board of the Conservator magazine.

In the same 2002, Tatyana Nikitichna begins to host a unique intellectual talk show "School of Scandal" on television together with screenwriter Dunya Smirnova. The program is still on the central television and enjoys stable success with its viewers.

The eldest son of Tatiana Tolstoy, Artemy Lebedev, the head of the Artemy Lebedev Studio, is also well known to a wide audience.