We remind you that the book prize “Espreso. Readers’ Choice” has been celebrating the best domestic literary novelties of the year for the fifth year in a row.
In the 2nd stage (during July), a highly respected expert jury of 12 professional literary experts and critics chose the best books from the Long List. Out of 84 books in the “Literature for adults” category, which were submitted for their unbiased assessment, 3 editions made it to the finals.
The top three finalists of the “Espreso.Readers’ Choice 2021” book award in the “Literature for adults” nomination, based on the results of a secret vote by experts, are as follows:
“20+1, or the Land of the Dead” by Pavlo Volvach (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“20+1 or the Land of the Dead” is a book in the crossover genre, in which Pavlo Volvach uses the classic means of memoir not only to create a gallery of iconic portraits of the time, but also to build his own biography as a weave of “cross paths” with all those diametrically different people.
Next to the classics of Ukrainian literature, shadowy people from the lumpen-criminalized Zaporozhian “towns” have joined here, in one company there are a musician with a solid prison and heroin experience, “Zaporebyk” countercultural figures, forgotten domestic political prisoners, and this heterogeneity of Volvach’s prose drawings will allow the reader to get into the kitchens of absolute geniuses and true evil spirits, to hear the dead is to see the living.
Poetry collection “Aviation Psalm” Serhii Zhadan (Meridian Czernowitz publishing house)
These poems were written during 2020. The place where they wrote lies on the hills. This meant the presence of a wide horizon line and a large amount of air. And there were also many trees and birds, there were streams, ponds and the even, distant breathing of the city beyond the horizon. A change in optics somehow leads to a change in writing. This is what the book is mainly about: how landscapes shape us, how trees give us verticality, and lakes give us depth, how spring greenery teaches us optimism, and summer rivers teach us generosity. Simple knowledge that helps to appreciate every voice heard in the morning.
The photo of Marisa Myanovska is used in the artwork and on the cover.
“Radio Night” Yuriy Andruhovych (“Meridian Czernowitz” publishing house)
As in “real reality”, another revolution has been defeated. Maybe because she lost her mysterious leader. Joseph Rothsky (not to be confused with Joseph Brodsky or Joseph Roth), the musical hero of the barricades, is forced to flee somewhere, risking the fate of many other Josephs. He is being persecuted, and the regime’s special services are only half the trouble. There’s also an inappropriate love to deal with and a bank secret to deal with. Prison experience and an involuntarily successful terrorist attack. As well as mind and oblivion, laughter and darkness, cold and hell, irony and pain. The last hiding place from where it is allowed to conduct the night ether. Is it really the last?..
“Radio Night” is the most poignant and at the same time the most lyrical work of Yuriy Andruhovych. A space where adventure romance meets fantasy and David Bowie meets traveling musicians of the Middle Ages.
It is nice to note that many books worthy of victory were submitted to this year’s competition, so it was not easy for the experts of the Award to make their choice.
Books that were noted by experts, but did not make it to the finals:
“Prison Song” by Olena Gerasimyuk (“Furious Business” publishing house)
“The death of Cecil the lion made sense” by Olena Styazhkin (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Nationalist’s Lexicon and Other Essays” by Mykola Ryabchuk (“Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Three Lines for Mary” by Serhiy Osoka (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Cruz and Fox. On the eve” Anton Sanchenko (Komora Publishing House)
“Anyone, but not me” Galina Kruk (“Vivat” publishing house)
Poetry collection “Order of the Silent” by Kateryna Kalytko (Meridian Czernowitz publishing house)
“Rejected and resurrected” Stepan Protsyuk (“Discursus” publishing house)
“Your M.” Iryna Zhurakovska (publishing house “Publishing House 21”)
Rough book of short prose “Because it is so” by Taras Prokhasko (“Meridian Czernowitz” publishing house)
“Fingers in the Sand” Stepan Protsyuk (publishing house “Nash Format”)
“Politicians do not lie. 10 laws of interaction between politicians and voters” Vadym Denysenko, Yuriy Vishnevskyi (“Nash Format” publishing house)
“In)visible” Ivan Baidak (“Vivat” publishing house)
“Cain” by Volodymyr Yeshkilev (“Folio” publishing house)
“Molodista” Lyudmila Taran (“Bukrek” Publishing House)
“Express to Galicia” Bohdan Kolomiychuk (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Ask Miechka” by Yevgeny Kuznetsov (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Iron water” Myroslav Layuk (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Ivenko, or Men are…” Lyudmila Taran (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“The First Investigation of the Empress” Natalka Snyadanko (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“Treats for Medor” Andrii Bondar (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“My journey to the Land of Marines. From the chaplain’s diary” Andriy Zelinskyi (publishing house “Stary Lev Publishing House”)
“A black bird flew in the sky” by Anna Bilenka (“TEMPORA” publishing house)
“Culinary journey to the Hetman region” Oleksiy Sokyrko (“TEMPORA” publishing house)
“Cuba-that-wasn’t-there” by Nataliya Dovgopol (“TEMPORA” publishing house)
“8000 Miles of Solitude” by Oksana Shavarska (“Furious Business” publishing house)
We will remind, the winner of the 5th season of the book award “Espreso. Readers’ Choice 2021” will be determined by readers from September to November in libraries across the country.
