“Under the River”, Asya Demishkevich. ed. Alpina.Prose
The story about the daughter of the Divnogorsk maniac, who was afraid that the gene for aggression would be passed on to her, at first glance will seem to the reader a real crime, but after a few pages it will become clear that this is the text. much deeper. In this completely realistic text Asya Demishkevich also works with mythological motifs connected to water images – a river, panic attacks of the hero (he is drowning), flooded villages, drowning people – these become a kind of transition between “real” and “real”. and “otherworldly”, or rather – between “conscious” and “subconscious”. “Under the River” is a global book not about maniacs or social problems, but about the inner world of a person, the conflict of spiritual levels. In Jungian terms, it’s about how not to fight your shadow, but how to accept it and learn to control it.
“Happy awakening day”, Anastasia Kalyuzhnaya. ed. MYTH
The neo-Gothic we deserve is “Frankenstein,” with a modern twist, imbued with the aesthetics of the Oscar-winning film “The Lost and Lost.” The plot is about an artificial monster – a twelve-year-old boy and a doctor-creator. In the hands of Anastasia Kalyuzhnaya, the story revolving around the theme of fathers and sons, the search for immortality, becomes immortal. But at the same time, despite the Gothic flair – grumpy servants, a grand mansion, creepy experiments – this is decidedly modern and relevant prose, raising ethical questions, including those about biomechanics and genetic engineering. Written on the fertile soil of a well-developed scientific base, “Happy Waking” remains a fascinating novel with detective elements. And of course, the main question the book asks: What does it mean to be human? Where does humanity come from? So can a monster experience it?
“The Willows of Babylon” by Maria Sparrows. ed. sage brush
The story follows the priestess Shekhmet, who sees the fall of ancient Babylon and loses everyone she loves, despite religious prohibitions. This is a careful reconstruction of the canon of Sumerian-Akkadian literature. Myths and legends about the ancient city are carefully intertwined with historical facts. Maria Vorobyi masterfully works on both the stylistic and semantic levels of the novel. “The Willows of Babylon” is a highly rhythmic and melodic narrative that primarily refers to the images, metaphors and vocal inscriptions present in the text of the Sumerian-Akkadian canon. The second is a sad and painful story about how to survive no matter what in a collapsing world, how to protect oneself and at the same time the historical memory of one’s homeland.
“Stain”, Anna Pestereva. ed. Alpina.Prose
On the one hand, Anna Pesterva’s debut film is a fascinating and dynamic modern magical realism in the spirit of “The House in That” about a girl locked in a village hut with a mysterious entity, the Stain. On the other hand, there is a novel in which a magical assumption is only necessary to aggravate the social subtexts emphasized by the author: from dying villages to the bad habit of Russians “to keep silent about all problems.” This is the world of “Cthonic Russia”, a world in which the internal states of the main character directly affect the outside world – and there is no magic, we are talking about a feeling of complete insecurity: both psychological and social. It is not for nothing that the words “Do not take this out of public view” appear as a refrain in the text. This is not just a hypnotic phrase that sets a special rhythm for the narrative, but also one of the main keys to revealing the true essence of the novel.
Ekaterina Zvontsova, “Yellow flowers for the yellow emperor.” ed. exmo
The long-awaited new product from one of the main authors of modern Russian-language fantasy is based on the history of China and Japan, but also has many elements from popular culture, such as references to “old-school” anime. “Yellow Flowers for the Yellow Emperor” is a novel mainly about socio-political strife involving a certain Magic Cherry, frustrated warriors, and tired rulers. There are many Gods and Heroes here, but this is certainly not a modern rethinking of the epic, but something more personal, albeit one built on the harness of politics, philosophy and sociology. Deep, rich and complex, this novel is for those who appreciate the believable workings of fictional worlds. But all this, of course, is just a big metaphor, because the new product – like other books by Ekaterina Zvontsova – is primarily a story about people in difficult situations.
“Pagan”, Alexander Kuznetsov-Tulyanin. ed. MYTH
An ethnographic novel about the island of Kunashir, one of the most remote places of the Kuril Islands, continues the “Reading Russia” series of the MIF publishing house and the LiveLib book service. The reader expects the highest quality example of the so-called “prose of the regions”, because “Pagan” is, first of all, a social novel. The author tries to show wild places where everything is different from the inside, but at the same time it makes both the characters and the reader think: Does it really make sense to say “everything is different”? Is the very primitive life of these islanders, full of simple pleasures such as alcohol and cigarettes (when viewed through the lens of the city), normal, or is their existence an aberration, a social ulcer, a relic of the past? Dark and serious, “Pagan” is a type of prose that makes you think on every page.
“Ruthless”, Anastasia Khudyakova. ed. sage brush
The main character of this novel is a Norwegian lawyer-murderer who is threatened by the revelation of his crimes by a mysterious character. Not everything is so simple with him either. He is an evil creature. “Grim” is a book that carries the spirit of Scandinavian detective stories like Jo Nesbø, but diluted with a fantastic premise that is important for the text. This is a very harsh and gloomy, and therefore fascinating psychological novel, where the development of the plot is equally proportional to the dynamics of the psychological problems of the heroes, where mysticism adds color to what is happening and the life of a lawyer. The killer is permeated by an overwhelming loneliness.
“The Four Horsemen”, Anton Mamon, Nikolai Obodnikov, Andrey Polyakov, Hector Schultz. “Litre” book service project.
The ambitious project of four authors of mysticism, horror, detective stories and social dramas – a new interpretation of the mythology of the four horsemen of the apocalypse – is not just a book. The authors independently create a major multimedia product with comics, illustrations, their own soundtrack, and voice performance. The reader will also be asked to guess which of the writers is hiding under each rider’s disguise. The project promises to be dynamic, highly social, scary and, in some places, particularly attractive. Shultz, Obodnikov, Mamon and Polyakov have the ability to hold the reader’s attention until the last page. It doesn’t matter what they write about and it doesn’t matter which one is on the keyboard. “The Four Horsemen” will be published electronically on Liters.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.