by A family saga, a modern Lolita, a historical novel – there is definitely something to read. goda-3ab1810.jpg” alt=”10 best fiction books of 2021″ />
Ekaterina Pisareva Editor-in-chief of the LitRes group of companies.
1. House Love, Evgenia Nekrasova
Many people are tied to the house by invisible bonds. It can become both a place of power and a prison. Some speak of him with tenderness, others shudder in horror. The writer Evgenia Nekrasova dedicated her new collection to the house and its inhabitants. Her stories, poems and short stories conjure reality, immerse readers in strange stories that seem quite realistic.
It is curious that Nekrasova's texts are populated mainly by female heroines: strong, courageous and desperate. They do not get lost even in the most difficult situations and, doubting everything, remain true to themselves.
2. “Gerda Taro: double exposure”, Helena Janecek
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Gerda Taro is the first woman to become a military photojournalist. She filmed the Spanish Civil War and died very young in 1937, a week before she was 27. The name of the girl is inextricably linked with the legendary photographer and founder of military journalism Robert Capa: at the beginning of their career, Friedman (Capa's real name) and Taro worked together and both sold photographs under this pseudonym.
Helena Janeček researched the archives, analyzed the facts and created a fascinating documentary novel that will help you understand the role of Gerda Taro in Robert Capa's success.
3. Holland House by Anne Patchett
American Anne Patchett has long been loved by the Russian reader. Her new novel is a family epic. A story about human nature, childhood trauma and overcoming oneself. It's also about love and compassion. It is pointless to retell in detail what this book is about – it is necessary to read.
And the last thing: be sure to pay attention to the worthy translation by Sergei Kumysh, thanks to which Patchett found a Russian voice.
4. “My Dark Vanessa” by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Vanessa, now a grown woman, recalls her high school romance. And not with anyone, but with a teacher, a man much older than her and endowed with power. When she is 15 and he is 42, it is easy to guess that the first love experience will cause indelible trauma for life. But is everything clear in this story if the victim refuses to consider himself a victim?
In the spring, when the novel was released in Russian, almost everyone discussed the book: one after another, social media users wrote posts about whether love can justify violence. It is worth getting acquainted with the most scandalous book of the year.
5. “Kishot” by Salman Rushdie .jpg” alt=”The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2021″ />
Sam Duchamp writes spy books and battles a midlife crisis. Inspired by the immortal novel of Cervantes, the hero invents his own Quixote – the elderly salesman Ishmael Smail. Together they will go on an exciting journey through Trump's America to find their Lady Fair — TV presenter Salma, whom Smile accidentally falls in love with.
The story, as always, is rich, complex, full of allusions and allusions. Salman Rushdie is one of those authors who knows how to surprise.
6. “Rana”, Oksana Vasyakina
A young poetess carries her mother's ashes to Siberia, to the small town of Ust-Ilimsk. Faced with death, the girl remembers the past, ponders family relationships and pronounces old traumas. The heroine sees life through the prism of literature, and lines of writers and poets flicker in the text, even the heroine of the Greek myth, Philomela, appears.
As a result, an amazing hybrid text is born that combines art and life. And if the latter is finite, then the former has no boundaries.
7. “We knew how to believe”, Rebecca McKie -goda-afffffb.jpg” alt=”Top 10 Fiction Books of 2021″ />
Chicago in the 1980s. Yale Tishman, art gallery development director, thinks about art and pursues his career. He does not even notice how the city is covered by an AIDS epidemic, due to which his close comrades die one by one. Finally, Yale is practically alone. He is supported only by Fiona, the sister of a deceased friend. McKie deftly weaves their destinies, and events at some point are transferred to modern Paris.
This novel about friendship and art, loss and trauma is often compared to A Little Life, but it is better to see it as a unique work about the impact of historical events on ordinary people.
8. “Doctor Garin”, Vladimir Sorokin
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Continuation of the famous story “The Snowstorm”, which in 2020 received the “Super-NOS” award and was named the book of the decade. In the new novel, we learn about the fate of Dr. Garin, who once saved people from the Bolivian virus. Now the doctor runs a sanatorium where ex-politicians from all over the world are treated. His patients are American Donald, German Angela, English Boris, Italian Silvio and Russian Vladimir. All of them live out their days under the watchful eye of Garin.
This is not a boring text about elderly politicians who have retired, but a bizarre, lively and caustic story – Sorokin does not change himself. There will even be a romantic line full of unexpected tenderness and lyricism.
9. “Zami: How to Write My Name in a New Way” by Audrey Lord
Audrey Lord herself defined the genre of the book as “biomythography”. This formulation is the key to how this experimental work should be perceived. It is based on the real life experience of the writer and the stories of her acquaintances of women. Lorde describes the coming of age of a black queer girl in 1950s America. Of course, the young heroine faces racism and homophobia, overcomes ostracism and misunderstanding and searches for herself.
“Zami” is not only a reflection on the experience of various women, but also a real manifesto of freedom and the right of all people to be what they want.
10. “Year of Miracles” by Geraldine Brooks 75972bd.jpg” alt=”The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2021″ />
Pulitzer Prize winner's first novel. And, I must say, very relevant during the pandemic. Brooks tells the story of a small English village whose inhabitants voluntarily cut themselves off from the world to keep the plague from spreading. So they spent a whole year, until most of them died. The writer shows how people behave during a terrible disaster. How they reach the limit of their own abilities, but keep going.
Today, this terrible novel seems rather not terrible, but even comforting. He seems to explain that everything can be overcome, the main thing is to have courage and patience.
Using a special promotional code LHACK on the LitRes website, you can get a book from a special selection as a gift, as well as a 25% discount on almost all assortment.
