The end of the year and the beginning of a new one are the best times to take stock. This is done by ordinary office workers, politicians, businessmen, housewives and schoolchildren. Book publishers have not remained on the sidelines either. What exactly do Russians read and what books did they like the most in the past 2019? This will be revealed by the rating of the best-selling books in Russia according to Forbes Lite magazine.
10. "While the river flows"
Author: Diana Setterfield
The first novel by this British writer, The Thirteenth Tale, was a worldwide sensation. The second was neither fish nor fowl. But the third, according to some critics, even surpassed the first.
The beginning is Victorian-Gothic: on the longest night of the year, a stranger bursts into a village tavern with a dead girl in his arms. The girl suddenly comes back to life (of course, otherwise there would be no point in writing the book) and the signature Setterfield polyphony begins. Many people tell different stories, but in the end, all these streams merge into one mighty and full-flowing river.
9. "The House Where the Light Is Burning"
Author: Elchin Safarli
Warm and cozy reading, which is especially tempting to immerse yourself in on long winter evenings. Safarli's creation continues the long series of books "about nothing", which reached its peak in the work of Coelho.
An elderly woman lives on the seashore, makes jam, seals it in small transparent jars and writes letters to her granddaughter. These letters are full of sayings that are common on social media pages. "Wisdom and experience grow out of doubt"; "Where there is no love, there is only error."
In total, last year, judging by sales, about 44 thousand people came into contact with such wisdom.
8. "Another Truth"
Author: Alexandra Marinina
It seemed that the queen of the action-packed detective story about Kamenskaya, a woman-computer, had long ago and hopelessly switched to long family sagas, only lightly and for appearances powdered with a detective component.
However, last year Marinina decided to return to the roots and built her jubilee, fiftieth novel about Kamenskaya according to the old patterns. The result is a solid book that will please both fans of her old novels and a more recent audience accustomed to lengthy reflections on life. Incidentally, the story is based on real facts.
7. "The Outsider"
Author: Stephen King
Just think, once upon a time no one wanted to publish King! Yes, we are not kidding: the first book of the beginning author was rejected no less than 30 times. It is good that King was so resilient in the face of his first failures and continues to frighten us for many years.
And although now the main source of butter on his bread is film adaptations, the king of horror and prince of nightmares recently delighted readers with a new book. And, of course, it entered the top best-selling books in Russia in 2019.
This time King masterfully immerses us in the atmosphere of an American town, where everyone knows each other, but everyone is not who they seem at first glance. And in every closet there is a skeleton. The whole action is heavily flavored with the supernatural, and the resulting cocktail takes your breath away.
6. "Brisbane"
Author: Evgeniy Vodolazkin
A poet in Russia is more than just a poet. So the writer Vodolazkin, who wrote his first full-length fiction book, "Lavr," seven years ago, now sits in the State Duma and is included in the Presidential Council for Culture and Art.
However, Evgeny did not rest on his state laurels and continues to delight the Russian people with his creations. And readers respond to him with love, and his books sell better and better every year. And so "Brisbane" has outsold Vodolazkin's two-year-old bestseller "Aviator" by 10 thousand copies.
"Brisbane" is the story of a musician who, at the peak of his career, discovers that he is terminally ill and will never be able to perform in public again. Presented against the backdrop of the last decades of Russian history, it is not only emotionally touching, but also interesting from a philosophical point of view. After all, each of us faces the questions that the main character has to solve.
5. "The Art of Light Touches"
Author: Victor Pelevin
Judging by sales, Russians are gradually losing interest in Pelevin's work. From the crazy print runs of the turn of the millennium, he has slowly but surely dropped to over 80,000 copies (including e-books and audiobooks).
But the master of Buddhist-style phantasmagorias is not discouraged and regularly treats his fans to a fresh novel once a year. The novels come out just in time for autumn, when the evenings are especially dreary and you want to sit at home and read.
In The Art of Light Touches, Pelevin remains true to himself, creating a nuclear mixture of modernity, thickly mixing it with myths and seasoning it with an alternative view of the world.
4. "Deadly Whiteness"
Author: Robert Galbraith
Perhaps you didn't know that the author of the Harry Potter novels hides under the pseudonym "Robert Galbraith". Several years ago, the famous writer decided to master a new genre - the action-packed detective story. And, apparently, in order to clearly distinguish one side of her work from another, she changed her name.
Whatever it may be, Joan's thrillers are no worse than children's literature. In addition to the purely detective line (which is moderately cheerful, moderately touching and moderately frightening), the attentive reader will learn a lot about how the inhabitants of the United Kingdom live and breathe.
3. "Knife"
Author: J. Nesbø
Our people love Scandinavian detectives. Whether it is the similar geographical location, or the similarity of character, or the desire to expose the most painful ulcers of society and dissect them with bitterness, anger and unexpected kindness.
But at least one Scandinavian thriller is present in the top 10 most popular books in Russia year after year. It would be strange if one of the most masterfully made and exciting books from a Norwegian writer would not be among the sales leaders. And "The Knife" breaks all records of the signature "nesbyism". In it, Scandinavian noir is presented even more noirishly, and Harry Hole's life is even harder. But that's why we love him, right?
By the way, according to Azbuka-Attikus, it is not The Silent Patient that is the sales leader, but The Knife. But the heartbreaking love story A Meter Apart, the sales leader according to Eksmo-AST, did not even make it into the top 10 of Forbes Life.
2. "White Horses"
Author: Dina Rubina
In general, judging by the results of 2019, the Russian people prefer well-known names and winners of major literary awards - this speaks to the quality of the publication as a whole. Dina Rubina, a venerable Soviet-Russian-Israeli author, was no exception.
The first novel of the not yet finished cycle was already a success, and the second one – the same “Horses” – was loved by readers even more. And it is not surprising, considering that this is a domestic novel about love against the backdrop of a rapidly unfolding Russian reality. Well, who would not empathize with the restless soul of a doctor with the ordinary name of Aristarkh and his beloved, the editor Nadezhda?
The dramas of love, carried through decades, are seasoned with something spicy – an adventurous line straight from Napoleonic times, the times of hussars, champagne, shakos and the crunch of aromatic French bread.
1. "The Silent Patient"
Author: Alex Michaelides
Alas, the Russian book market was unable to repeat the records of 2018. The Mute Patient loses to the cheerful, full of drive and, let's face it, slightly crazy novels of Dan Brown.
If "Origin" by the templar and Vatican purveyor was selling like hotcakes in winter (more than 300 thousand copies were sold), then "Patient", the best-selling book in Russia in 2019 according to Forbes Lite, barely crawled over a hundred. And that's with the addition of e-books and audiobooks.
However, the two books have a common genre – they are both action-packed thrillers. Judging by the rating, stories of this genre are still the most popular among readers. So the Greek author has clothed the ancient Greek myth in an interesting and exciting form.
A woman lives in a psychiatric clinic. She used to be an artist, but now not only does she not paint, she does not even speak. She killed her husband and tried to die, but she was saved. Was this crime actually committed, and if it was, is it a crime in the strict sense of the word? These questions torment a psychiatrist who is trying to figure out what happened to his patient many years ago.
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