Book clinic: what are the best contemporary Russian novels?
(The Guardian Russia)

Attending the World Cup? Our expert suggests some modern fiction from the host nationQ: I am about to travel to Russia for the World Cup. Leaving the classics to one side, what are the best contemporary Russian novels?Sean Golding, 27, marketing consultant, LondonA: Phoebe Taplin, journalist and author of four seasonal walking guides to Moscow, where she lived for five yearsRussian fiction has been exploring national and existential questions since Nikolai Gogol asked in Dead Souls where the `winged troika` of his country was heading. There are still interesting, challenging postmodern novels coming out of Russia that continue this tradition: here are some that are (relatively) readable and available in English. Andrei Gelasimov´s The Lying Year is a dark poignant comedy set in 1990s Moscow that explores - like Chekhov´s Cherry Orchard - the moral confusion of a world in flux. Ludmila Ulitskaya´s Tolstoyan novel The Big Green Tent tackles Judaism, feminism and family through the lives of three late-Soviet schoolfriends. She narrates a drunken teenage party or a KGB interrogation with an eye for comic detail and an ear for ominous cadence. Related: The writers Russians don`t read - and you should Continue reading...