The council of experts for the Big Book prize, one of Russia’s most prestigious annual literary awards, has named 12 books to the prize’s shortlist for 2019:
- Sukhbat Aflatuni, Heaven on Earth
- Olgerd Bakharevich, The Dogs of Europe
- Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Brisbane (Meduza review in Russian)
- Alexander Gonorovsky, A Forest Gone to the Dogs
- Linor Goralik, All Who Can Breathe a Breath
- Oleg Lekmanov, Mikhail Sverdlov, and Ilya Simanovsky. Venedikt Yerofeyev, Outsider
- Yevgenia Nekrasova, Kalechina-Malechina (Meduza review in English)
- Alexey Salnikov, Indirectly (Meduza review in Russian)
- Roman Senchin, The Rain in Paris
- Grigory Sluzhitel, Savely’s Days
- Vyacheslav Stavetsky, The Life of A.G. (Meduza review in Russian)
- Guzel Yakhina, Children of the Volga (Meduza review in Russian)
Mikhail Butov, who led the council of experts, noted that this year “has shown that the younger generation of writers has given a strong push to the older generation” in a conversation with Interfax.
The winner of the Big Book prize will receive a monetary award of three million rubles (about $46,100) while the runner-up will receive 1.5 million (about $23,050) and the third-place winner will earn one million (about $15,370). The date for the prize’s final announcement has not yet been set.
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