Booker Winners and Others II

Excerpts from the novels shortlisted for the third Booker Russian Novel Prize read like complete stories and are followed by summaries of the novels and authors' notes. Included are: Bulat Okudzhava (Winner), The Show is Over; Peter Aleshkovsky, The Life of Ferret; Yuri Buida, Don Domino; Alexei Slapovsky, The First Second Coming; Mikhail Levitin, Total Impropriety; Igor Dolinyak, The Third World. Also a story by Mark Kharitonov, the first winner of the Russian Booker, which is a sequel to his prize-winning novel. Others include Asar Eppel whose style and themes are reminiscent of Babel and Sholem Aleichem, and Nikolai Klimontovich, a Soviet Casanova, telling his naughty stories where sex and politics are intertwined.