Congratulations to Ksenia Buksha on being short-listed for the Big Book Award!

Russian writer Ksenia Buksha’s 2019 novel Churov and Churbanov [“Чуров и Чурбанов”] was just shortlisted for the 2020 Big Book Award! I listened to the novel as an audiobook (you can get Russian audiobooks legally and quite cheaply at Litres) and loved this quirky, moving, and keenly-observed story. It is so palpably grounded in St. Petersburg that the small but essential moment of magical realism that grounds the tale seems as real as the local bread factory’s industrial bread dough mixer that shakes the neighborhood every time it turns on. Stay tuned for a translation amuse-bouche!