Hi.I need to read a novel based in either Russia or the Middle East for a.courae I’m doing….any suggestions?
Hi.I need to read a novel based in either Russia or the Middle East for a.courae I’m doing….any suggestions?
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Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward? Pelevin’s Oman Ra?
Yes, I do have a suggestion! I just finished reading “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. It is without a doubt one of the best books I’ve ever read. I wanted it to never end. The writing is gorgeous and the characters are beloved. “The Kite Runner” by Khalid Hussein is also a literary feast.
Read and loved both those books too ?
Loved a Gentleman in Moscow!
@Ashley it’s been accepted onto my favourites shelf ?
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.
Master and Margarita. Based in Moscow.
All the places it happens are real. I’ve got my photo taken sitting on the bench at Patriarchs Ponds where Woland meets Berlioz and Bezdomny, in front of the Writer’s Union building, etc. The novel says what street Margarita lives on but never gives a house number; on a retaining wall for a garden on that street, some graffiti artist had spraypainted Woland there and I’ve got my photo next to it. The grocery store where Annushka buys the oil is now a fancy “Cafe Margarita” and there’s a “Behemot” steak house up the street from it.
Jealous. Loving this book-not done yet so no spoilers! Keep yelling “no”!! when a character says something like “and who the devil would think”…
@Hudson I was in Moscow for seven weeks as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow during one of my sabbaticals before I retired as a college professor.
Russian: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol is good one also. Of course everything of Dostoyevski or Tolstoy.
Lahore, Pakistan: Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid (Warning: good, but disgusting, unreliable characters, one worse than the other in terms of their attitude, life style, and morals.. Left with the feeling not liking anyone, not believing anyone)
The Bear and the Nightingale
Solzhenitsyn’s ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH.
Tolstoy’s THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH. Dostoyevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
A Gentleman in Moscow, Anna Karenina, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Death of Ivan Illyich
The Kite Runner
Murder on a Kibbutz, Saturday Morning Murder by Batia Gur
Paullina Simon’s books.
Sashenka by Simon Montefiore.
https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Department-Robert-Cullen/dp/0804111642
I just finished FROM BROKEN GLASS by Steve Ross. It’s an excellent perspective memoir of Steve Ross, a.k.a. Smulek Rozental, a survivor of the holocaust. This book is not for the sensitive reader.
Thank you! I always welcome reading suggestions.
From Broken Glass is an intercalary memoir that alternates between the holocaust and Boston, MA.
As someone who’s Russian, I can say that 99 % of contemporary books about Russia or set in Russia by western authors are unreadable. The guys have absolutely no idea what they’re writing about. Feels like a parellel world. My friends and I read these books to have a laugh. So, if you need something for your class, think about going for Russian writers. If you need classics, think about “Oblomov” by Goncharov (less mind numbingly dull than Dostoevsky or Tolstoy) or plays by Ostrovsky. If you want something modern and less philosophical/depressing, then try Sergei Lukyanenko and his fantasy series “World of Watches” (The Night Watch, The Day Watch, The Twilight Watch, The Last Watch). The series was superbly translated into English and is about two police forces – the Night Watch are “light” wizards and sorcerers who apprehend vampires, zombies, werewolves who commit crimes, and the Day Watch are “dark” creatures, who keep the balance of good and evil and stop over-eager “light” folk from doing too much good and upsetting the balance of the world. In the end both police forces always end up working together to save the world and understanding the need for the balance of god and evil.
Natalia Muravyeva
Where do you live in Russia?
@Kathy Moscow
Oh, also! If you don’t want to read Russian literature in translation, try Katherine Arden and her Russian trilogy. She’s an American writer, who has actually lived in Russia. She writes fascinating books based on Russian folklore and our traditional characters. Utterly amazing and accurately done, while raising a variety of hot topics and modern issues, and full of action and adventure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winternight_trilogy
????
The Conference of the Birds
Farid Ud-Din Attar
Persian Sufi Poetry
An Introduction to the Mystical Use of Classical Poems
J.T.P.De Bruijn
Oh and maybe Reading Lolita in Tehran
Persian Literature
C.A. Storey
The Romance of the Rubaiyat
A.J. Arberry
In Search of Omar Khayyam
L.Elwell and A.J.. Boyle