Big Book Prize 2012 Finalists Announced
This year’s ceremony of the Big Book Award, the biggest literary award in Russia, was held at the Russian National Library’s Pashkov House on 27th November. The jury had to choose among 14 finalists:
Aleksandr Grigorenko, Mebet. The Story of a Person from the Taiga
Aleksandr Kabakov, Evgenii Popov, Aksyonov
Andrei Dmitriev, The Peasant and the Teenager
Andrei Rubanov, Shameful Feats
Archimandrite Tikhon, Everyday Saints and Other Stories
Daniil Granin, My Lieutenant
Lena Eltang, Other Drums
Maria Galina, Mole-Crickets
Marina Stepnova, The Women of Lazarus
Sergei Nosov, Françoise, Or the Way to the Glacier
Valerii Popov, To Dance to Death
Vladimir Gubailovsky, The Teacher of Cynicism
Vladimir Makanin, Two Sisters and Kandinsky
Zakhar Prilepin, The Black Monkey
Two out of three, went to memoirs. The top prize and special prize “For Honor and Dignity” went to Daniil Granin. In his novel My Lieutenant a 93 year old author pays tribute to Russian WW 2 soldiers. Aleksandr Kabakov and Evdgenii Popov’s Aksyonv, a memoir about Russian acclaimed author Vassili Aksyonov, won the second prize. The third runner-up was Marina Stepnova with her family saga The Women of Lazarus.
Readers were also given a chance to vote online for their favourite titles. The Women of Lazarus was also the third among those favoured by the readers, while Maria Galina’s Mole-Crickets run the second.
The readers’ top selection was Everyday Saints by Archimandrite Tikhon, thus giving the book The Readers’ Choice Award.
Held annually since 2005, the Big Book Award is funded and supported by various state and professional organizations and is open to prose of any genre as long as it is written in Russian.
