Salon

Moscow's annual "non/fiction" book fair, which opens at the Central House of Artists on Wednesday and runs to Dec. 5, advertises itself as a haven for "intellectual" literature. But just what the words "intellectual" and "nonfiction" mean in Russian is up to debate.

The first epithet gets attached to almost anything, from crime novels by scholar-turned-writer Boris Akunin and Alexandra Marinina, who has also been gravitating toward highbrow meditation lately, to hard-boiled U.S. thrillers like Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" that require a modicum of education from their readers. As for what Westerners might consider to be "nonfiction" (the title of the fair is pronounced in English), it's a phenomenon still largely unknown to the Russian public, at least in its intellectual variety. There is no shortage of self-help books and memoirs, but that's not what the fair's organizers are getting at.

Whether or not they will achieve their aim this year remains to be seen. But one thing is sure: The "non/fiction" fair has always been a melting pot of ideas, a place where authors, publishers and readers meet face to face. And with serious Western publishers flocking to Moscow to find new projects, repercussions can be felt abroad.

Highlights of the fair will include two literary awards, one for translation of French literature and the other for fiction -- the prestigious Andrei Bely Prize, with its traditional winner's purse of a bottle of vodka and an apple. Visitors interested in the business of books will watch as publishers and booksellers compete for the Person of the Year award, while those drawn to the visual arts will have their choice of bizarre displays, including "The Angel's Crystal Stomach," "About A Square" and "Words and Scrolls."

Several events will also be devoted to this year's featured guest, Hungary, from meetings with Hungarian writers to discussions with translators of Hungarian literature of the need to promote more minor literary traditions in today's commercialized publishing world. At the same time, cultural celebrities such as poet Dmitry Prigov, artist Yekaterina Dyogot, writer and radical politician Eduard Limonov, and rock lyricist and translator Ilya Kormiltsev will air their views on literature, politics, education and the publishing business in a three-day conference titled "Alternatives Today."

The fair is set to be feisty, but there is reason to exercise caution. Alexander Gavrilov, a member of the organizing committee and editor of the Knizhnoye Obozreniye literary review, warned in a brief interview that the Russian book market is overloaded and may, in the near future, suffer from an overproduction crisis. Of course, only time will show the truth of his gloomy prediction. In the meantime, readers have a chance to sample the cream of Russia's current literary life this week, all in one place.