Books by Vladimir Sorokin
“The Oprichniki were the henchmen of Ivan the Terrible. So it’s a 16th-century Russian theme transposed into the future. It’s a dystopian novel—following in that Russian tradition of dystopian writing of Zamyatin etc.—and is quite clearly a political satire of the Putin regime. It’s funny, it’s iconoclastic and it’s terrifying because although it was written in 2006, it seems to me that it’s describing what Russia is now becoming. I’m haunted by this book.” Read more...
Orlando Figes, Historian
Interviews where books by Vladimir Sorokin were recommended
-
1
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy -
2
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler -
3
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky -
4
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
by Vladimir Nabokov -
5
A Hero of Our Time
by Mikhail Lermontov & translator Vladimir Nabokov -
6
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
by Nikolai Leskov
Books by Russian Authors
Books by Russian Authors
From the Enlightenment onwards, Russian authors have produced a vast and influential literary canon, including historic epics, absurdist classics, and tortured reflections on the human condition. Russia’s political turmoil also led to the writing of many moving memoirs and political works that sought to find solutions in spite of censorship and, for some authors, exile.
The Best Russian Novels, recommended by Orlando Figes
They’re among the finest novels ever written, often vast in their scope and ambitious in their subject matter. Some are long, others can be read in an afternoon. They’re also one of the best ways of understanding Russian history. Historian Orlando Figes, author of The Story of Russia and Natasha’s Dance, recommends his favourite Russian novels, from the 19th century to today.
