The third and final part of the preview of the Moscow International Book Fair, to be held Sept. 1 to 6 at the All-Russia Exhibition Center (former VDNKh).
Modern Russian Fantasy
This is still a relatively new genre in Russian literature, but in the 10 years of its existence three writers have established themselves as leaders in their field: Nikolai Perumov, Vasily Golovatchyov and Mikhail Uspensky.
Perumov published his first book, a 1,300-page Russian-style rehash of Tolkien's "Lord of the Ring," in his native St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. He is now the immensely popular author of innumerable fantasy sagas, each running at least 1,000 pages.
Golovachyov provides a regular stream of novels in the so-called heroic fantasy genre, while Uspensky, from Siberia, specializes in humorous fantasy trilogies based on Russian folklore. He is often viewed as having more literary talent as a fantasist than all his colleagues taken together and his most recent title(the untranslatable "Kovo za smertiu posylat") has been nominated in this year's long list for the Smirnoff-Booker-99 prize.
Modern Russian Memoirs
In this category, 1998-1999 has been the year of TV personality, playwright, political activist and feminist Maria Arbatova. Her autobiography "I'm 40" (Mne sorok let) has vied for the No. 1 bestseller spot with the recollections of film director Andrei Konchalovsky, "Base Truths" (Nizkiye istiny) and "Elevating Deceptions" (Vozvyshayushchy obman).
Modern Russian Poetry
While there are no outright winners and bestselling authors in this category, several dozen interesting poets have had new work published over the last year. To identify them among the countless new volumes of poetry, you could do one of two things.
The quaterly periodical Orion is devoted entirely to modern poetry and has a reputation for good taste. It has a wide spectrum of contributing poets and is pleasingly impartial when it comes to promoting this or that poetic camp. Orion can be bought in Moscow's so-called intellektualniye bookstores or obtained through subscription.Of the many publishers of poetry in single volumes, the Pushkinsky Fond gets my vote as the pick of the bunch. The St. Petersburg publishing house has brought out 20-odd well-produced titles this year, each dedicated to a different author and with a circulation of 1,000 copies.
Russian Classics
The market here has been swamped by that minor poet Alexander Pushkin. As a result of his 200th birthday last June, the number of books published by and about the sun of Russian letters is beyond any rational or commercial explanation.
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