Alexander Terekhov

Genres

Художественная литература

Биография

Aleksander Terekhov was born in June 1966 in the provincial town of Tula, just south of Moscow. After graduating in journalism from Moscow State University he was conscripted and served in the Soviet Union’s Internal Security Forces.


After the army Terekhov worked as a reporter for the cultural sections of the journals Ogonek and Stolitsa, and then in various editorial positions. At the same time he began to win acclaim for his literary dissection of military life and his depiction of the chaos that perestroika had ushered in across provincial Russia.


Terekhov was attacked by some senior figures in the Russian military for his early novel Buddy and his cycle of tales of conscript life, Army Stories (which was published in English in 2007). The controversy, as well as the skill of his writing, established Terekhov as one of the most talented authors to have emerged in the 1990s.


The Moscow Times has compared Terekhov’s satire of provincial life to that of Saltykov-Shchedrin and the individuality of his language to that of Platonov. His writing, they suggest, ‘is packed with forceful imagery and the slang of modern Russia... [and] a distinctive and individual intonation’. The novel that has garnered the most attention and critical praise, however, is 1997's The Rat Killer. This biting, and at times bitter, attack on the petty cruelties and countless absurdities which permeate provincial Russian life exposes strong continuities with Soviet practice. Called out from the capital to deal with Svetloyar’s rat infestation, the two pest-controllers at the heart of story witness official absolutism, the manufacturing of history and a ridiculous cycle of infighting. As the phantasmagoric reality descends into nightmare the malice and greed of the humans comes to resemble that of the rodents they are trying to exterminate, while the rats acquire increasingly human features.


Terekhov has been translated into French and German and in 2008 The Rat Killer was published in English:The Guardian noted its 'fine satire' . He lives in Moscow and is married with two children. His latest novel The Stone Bridge is an exploration into the mysteries of Stalin’s Moscow; it took second prize at the 2009 Big Book awards.

Премии и награды

2009
The Big Book Prize (The Stone Bridge / Каменный мост)

Другие издания

Русский язык

  • the stone bridge, 2009
  • Army Stories / Мемуары срочной службы, Eksmo-Press, 2001
  • Favorites / Избранное, 1997
  • The Rat-Killer / Крысобой, 1995
  • Margin of the Desert / Окраина пустыни, 1995
  • Asking for Forgiveness / Прошу простить, 1993
  • Secret. Essays / Секрет. Очерки, 1989

Английский язык

Контакты