Vladimir Georgiyevich Sorokin (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Гео́ргиевич Соро́кин; born 7 August 1955) is a contemporary postmodern Russian writer and dramatist. He has been described as one of the most popular writers in modern Russian literature.

Biography

Sorokin was born on 7 August 1955 in Bykovo, Moscow Oblast, near Moscow. In 1972, he made his literary debut with a publication in the newspaper ''Za kadry neftyanikov'' (russian: link=no, За кадры нефтяников, ''For the workers in the petroleum industry''). He studied at the

Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas The Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (russian: Российский государственный университет нефти и газа имени И. М. Губкина) is a public university in Moscow, Russia. The univ ...

in Moscow and graduated in 1977 as an engineer. After graduation, he worked for one year for the magazine ''Shift'' (russian: link=no, Смена, Smena), before he had to leave due to his refusal to become a member of the Komsomol. Throughout the 1970s, Sorokin participated in a number of art exhibitions and designed and illustrated nearly 50 books. Sorokin's development as a writer took place amidst painters and writers of the Moscow underground scene of the 1980s. In 1985, six of Sorokin's stories appeared in the Paris magazine ''A-Ya''. In the same year, French publisher ''Syntaxe'' published his novel ''Ochered (''

The Queue The Queue was a nickname for the queue of mourners who waited to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II while she lay in state at Westminster Hall in London, England, from 14 to 19 September 2022. Two separate queues for mourners operate ...

''). Sorokin is a devout Christian, having been baptized at the age of 25. Sorokin's works, examples of underground culture, were banned during the Soviet period. His first publication in the USSR appeared in November 1989, when the Riga-based Latvian magazine ''Rodnik'' (Spring) presented a group of Sorokin's stories. Soon after, his stories appeared in Russian literary miscellanies and magazines ''Tretya Modernizatsiya'' (The Third Modernization), ''Mitin Zhurnal'' (Mitya's Journal), ''Konets Veka'' (End of the Century), and ''Vestnik Novoy Literatury'' (Bulletin of the New Literature). In 1992, Russian publishing house ''Russlit'' published ''Sbornik Rasskazov'' (Collected Stories) – Sorokin's first book to be nominated for a

Russian Booker Prize The Russian Booker Prize (russian: Русский Букер, ''Russian Booker'') was a Russian literary award modeled after the Booker Prize. It was awarded from 1992 to 2017. It was inaugurated by English Chief Executive Sir Michael Harris Ca ...

. Sorokin's early stories and novels are characterized by the combination of socialist-realist discourse with extreme physiological or absurd content; Sorokin himself has described his early writings as "little binary literary bombs made up of two incompatible parts: one socialist realist, and the other based on actual physiology, resulting in an explosion, and this gave me, the writer, a little spark of freedom." Vladimir Sorokin 01

In September 2001, Vladimir Sorokin received the People's Booker Prize; two months later, he was presented with the Andrei Bely Prize for outstanding contributions to Russian literature. In 2002, there was a protest against his book ', and he was investigated for pornography. Sorokin's books have been translated into English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Korean, Romanian, Estonian, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian and Slovenian, and are available through a number of prominent publishing houses, including Gallimard, Fischer, DuMont, BV Berlin, Haffman, Mlinarec & Plavic and Verlag der Autoren. His 2006 novel, ''

Day of the Oprichnik ''Day of the Oprichnik'' (russian: День опричника, ''Den' oprichnika'') is a 2006 novel by the Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. The narrative is set in the near future, when the Tsardom of Russia has been restored, and follows a gover ...

'', describes a dystopian Russia in 2027, with a

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

in the Kremlin, a Russian language with numerous Chinese expressions, and a "Great Russian Wall" separating the country from its neighbors. He was awarded in 2015 the

Premio Gregor von Rezzori The Premio Gregor von Rezzori (Gregor von Rezzori Award) is a literary prize awarded at the annual Festival degli Scrittori in Florence. The award was established in 2007 in honor of Gregor von Rezzori, a Mitteleuropean writer, author of novels an ...

for this novel. In 2016 he was accused by pro-Kremlin activists of "extremism", "pro-cannibalism themes" and "going against Russian Orthodox values" in his 2000 short story ''Nastya'', the contents of which concern a 16-year-old being cooked alive in an oven and eaten by her family and friends. In December 2019, Russian filmmaker Ilya Belov released the documentary "Sorokin Trip" in which he portrayed and examined the writer's life and work. In March 2022, Sorokin was among the signatories of an appeal by eminent writers to all Russian speakers to spread the truth about the war against Ukraine inside Russia.Eminent writers urge Russian speakers to tell truth of war in Ukraine
theguardian.com, 22-03-05. Retrieved 2022-03-09.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Норма'' (written 1979–1983, published by Tri Kita and Obscuri Viri, 1994). ''The Norm'', trans. Max Lawton (New York Review Books, forthcoming) *''Очередь'' (written 1983, published by Syntaxe, 1985). ''

'', trans. Sally Laird (Readers International, 1988; New York Review Books, 2008; ) *''Тридцатая любовь Марины'' (written 1982–1984, published by Elinina, 1995). ''Marina’s 30th Love'', trans. Max Lawton (Dalkey Archive, forthcoming) * ''Роман'' (written 1985–1989, published by Tri Kita and Obscuri Viri, 1994). ''Roman'', trans. Max Lawton (Dalkey Archive, forthcoming) * ''Сердца Четырех'' (written 1991, published 1994). ''Their Four Hearts'', trans. Max Lawton (Dalkey Archive, 2022) * ''Голубое Сало'' (Ad Marginem, 1999). ''Blue Lard'', trans. Max Lawton (New York Review Books, forthcoming) * ''Лёд'' (Ad Marginem, 2002). ''

Ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

'', trans.

Jamey Gambrell Jamey Gambrell (April 10, 1954 – February 15, 2020) was an American translator of Russian literature, and an expert in modern art. She was an editor with the ''Art in America'' magazine, and was a winner of the Thornton Wilder Prize for Transl ...

(New York Review Books, 2007; ) * ''Путь Бро'' (Zakharov Books, 2004). '' Bro'', trans. Jamey Gambrell (in ''Ice Trilogy'', 2011). * ''23'000'' (Zakharov Books, 2005). '' 23,000'', trans. Jamey Gambrell (in ''Ice Trilogy'', 2011). * ''День опричника'' (Zakharov Books, 2006). ''

'', trans. Jamey Gambrell (2010; ) * ''Сахарный кремль''. (AST, 2008). ''The Sugar Kremlin'' * ''Метель'' (AST, 2010). ''The Blizzard'', trans. Jamey Gambrell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015; ) * ''Теллурия'' (AST, 2013). ''Telluria'', trans. Max Lawton (New York Review Books, 2022) * ''Манарага'' (Corpus, 2017). ''Manaraga'' * ''Доктор Гарин'' (Corpus, 2021). ''Doctor Garin''

Compilations and short stories

*''Первый субботник'' (written 1979–1984, published by Ad Marginem, 1998). ''The First Saturday Workday'' *''Месяц в дахау'' (1990, published by Ad Marginem, 1998). ''A Month in Dachau'' *''Пир'' (Ad Marginem, 2000). ''Feast'' *''Заплыв'' (AST, 2008). ''Swim'' *''Сахарный кремль'' (AST, 2008). ''Sugar Kremlin'' *''Моноклон'' (АST, 2010). ''Monoclonius'' *''Ice Trilogy'' (New York Review Books, 2011; ). ''Bro'', ''Ice'', and ''23,000'' published together in one volume. *''Белый квадрат'' (Corpus, 2018). ''The white square''

Plays

* ''Пельмени'' (1984–1987). ''Pelmeni'' * ''Землянка'' (1985). ''The Dugout'' * ''Русская бабушка'' (1988). ''Russian Grandmother'' * ''Доверие'' (1989). ''Confidence'' * ''Дисморфомания'' (1990). ''Dysmorphomania'' * ''Юбилей'' (1993). ''Anniversary'' * ''Hochzeitsreise'' (1994–1995). ''The Post-Nuptial Journey'' * ''Щи'' (1995–1996). ''Shchi'' * ''Dostoevsky-Trip'' (1997). * ''С Новым Годом'' (1998). ''Happy New Year'' * ''Капитал'' (2006). ''Capital'' * ''Занос'' (2009). ''The Snow Drift''

Film scripts

* ''Безумный Фриц'' ("''Mad Fritz''") (1994). Directors: Tatiana Didenko and Alexander Shamaysky. * ''Москва'' ("''Moscow''") (2000). Director: Alexander Zeldovich. First Prize in the festival in Bonn; Award of Federation of Russian Film-Clubs for best Russian movie of the year. * ''Копейка'' ("''Kopeck''") (2002). Director: Ivan Dykhovichny. Nomination for Zolotoy Oven Award for best film script. * ''Вещ'' ("''Thing''") (2002). Director: Ivan Dykhovichny. * '' 4 ("Four")'' (2005). Director:

Ilya Khrzhanovsky Ilya Andreyevich Khrzhanovsky (russian: Илья́ Андре́евич Хржановский; born 11 August 1975) is a Russian-born film director, screenwriter, film producer and member of the European Film Academy. His father Andrei Khrzhan ...

. Grand Jury Prize of International Film Festival Rotterdam. * ''Мишень'' ("''Target''") (2011). Director: Alexander Zeldovich.

Other works

* Photograph album ''В глубь России'' ("''Into the Depths of Russia''"), in cooperation with painter Oleg Kulik. * Libretto for opera ''Дети Розенталя'' ("''

The Children of Rosenthal ''The Children of Rosenthal'' (russian: link=no, Дети Розенталя, translit=D'eti Rozental'a) is a 2005 postmodern opera in two acts by Leonid Desyatnikov to a Russian libretto by Vladimir Sorokin. Set in USSR during the post- World W ...

''"), with music by

Leonid Desyatnikov Leonid Arkadievich Desyatnikov (russian: Леони́д Арка́дьевич Деся́тников, born: 16 October 1955, Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR) is a Russian composer who first made a reputation with a number of film scores, then achieving gr ...

; written on request of the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and op ...

, Moscow. * ''Нормальная история'' ("A Normal Story") (2019), a collection of Sorokin's essays written in the 2010s. * Dozens of stories published in Russian and foreign periodicals.

References

External links

*
Official Webpage

Full bibliography
* * .

interview to '' Der Spiegel'', 2 February 2007.
"The Wait: On Vladimir Sorokin"
''The Nation'', Elaine Blair, 25 March 2009
"''Ice'' by Vladimir Sorokin"
''Bookslut'', February 2007 *

''nthWORD Magazine Shorts'', Ryan O'Connor, July 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorokin, Vladimir 1955 births Living people 20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian male writers 21st-century Russian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Russian male writers People from Ramensky District Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia Eastern Orthodox writers Postmodern writers Russian dramatists and playwrights Russian male writers Counterculture of the 1990s Writers about Russia Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine