Vladimir Sorokin

He is considered the main representative of postmodern Russian literature. In 1985, running away from Soviet orthodoxy and looking for possible scenarios in which to write, he managed to publish six stories in A-YA, a Russian contemporary art magazine published in Paris. This made possible the contact with the French publishing house Syntaxe, with whom he published the novel Óchered (The Queue). After the publication of The Ice (published in Spanish by Alfaguara, 2011), Sorokin became an author who clearly makes Putin's Russia politically uncomfortable. The work is an apocalyptic thriller with allegories against fanaticism, denouncing the attempts to isolate Russia from the Western world. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages and has won several awards, such as the People's Booker Prize, the Andrey Bely Prize for his "exceptional contribution to Russian literature", and the Liberty Prize of the German Ministry of Culture. His latest novel translated into Spanish is The Day of the Oprichnik (Alfaguara, 2008), a dark and dystopian tale that dares to reflect in literature the alarming political realities of present-day Russia. With this work he was a finalist for the Russian National Bestseller and winner of the Gregor von Rezzori Award.