Product Description
In 2002, 20-year-old Irina Denezhkina woke up to find herself famous. Brought up in the provincial, industrial town of Yekaterinburg, she had amused herself by writing stories about the lives of the teenagers she saw around her. When she published them on the internet, they were spotted by a well-known literary critic and nominated for Russia's 'National Bestseller Award'. Immediately she got a publisher in Russia and, following that, international publishers across the world, including America and Britain. Her stories tell it like it is for Russia's new generation, brought up in a complex post-Communist world where the influences are more MTV than Marx. Teenage sex, alcohol, violence - preoccupations familiar to the urban youth of the West - are mixed with brilliant observations of particularly Russian problems - the effects of the war in Chechnya on a young soldier for example. Compared in Russia to Salinger and Hemingway - or to the cult film Kids, this extraordinary debut has shaken up the rather stagnant, old-fashioned Russian literary scene with the freshness of its language, form and subject matter and has paved the way for the future.
From the Publisher
Chatto brings you the new voice of Russia. Irina Denezhkina published her first collection of stories on the internet when she was 20 and has since shot to international stardom.
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