The Big Book Award ceremony took place in Moscow.

The finale of the “Big Book” this year was awaited with special interest. The short list was a great success for the Council of Experts, so the task facing the jury was not easy, and it seemed almost impossible to avoid surprises when solving it. However, by awarding the first prize to Evgeniy Vodolazkin for “Chagin,” the second to Yuri Buida for “The Gift of Speech,” and the third to Alexei Salnikov for “Occulttraeger,” the jury showed that nothing was impossible for him. The results of the main literary award of the year are assessed Mikhail Prorokov.

Shortlist For the first time in years, the “Big Book” resembled not a neat flower bed after careful weeding, but a real list of literature—at least given as a recommendation to students studying modern prose. The choice for the members of the Literary Academy was not easy; there were no paths to a compromise solution: the list did not include any absolute masters like Leonid Yuzefovich, nor convenient litbiographies – the “Sholokhov” prize for Zakhar Prilepin, regardless of the wishes of the jury, would have been considered a political gesture, while Anton Nosik, the hero of “The Creator” by Mikhail Wiesel has not yet bronzed enough so that, being in the top three, it will not cause controversy and objections. So the results were awaited with impatience and cautious optimism.

The beginning of the award ceremony also set the mood in an optimistic mood. The number of special effects was significantly reduced; instead of launching a pre-edited video sequence and loading the audience with Dostoevsky or astronomy, the organizers collected short (up to a hundred words) auto characteristics from the finalists, which the presenter read out while the camera broadcast on the screen the face of the author waiting to go on stage. Until the text was finished, the author was not allowed on stage. Young writers, especially girls, withstood the test steadfastly; writers of the older generation, not accustomed to playing the role of a screensaver for their own texts, felt awkward – Evgeniy Vodolazkin looked the best in this age category.

As soon as everyone was seated, the presentation of auxiliary prizes began – those awarded not by the Lithuanian Academy, but by someone else. The Reader’s Choice Award went to “Sholokhov” – however, Zakhar Prilepin was quick to admit that, being a popular blogger, he simply mobilized his subscribers to vote on Livelib. The editor of the publishing house Alpina, which was widely represented on the shortlist, was recognized as the best literary blogger. Prose” by Asya Shevchenko, the prize “For Contribution to Literature” went to the widow of Sergei Filatov, the “Choice” of the younger generation fell on “Rose” Oksana Vasyakina. Diversity was growing and threatened to reach a critical point.

But it didn’t reach.

The three included no debutants, no debutantes, no politically charged texts, or simply little-known names. First place went to “Chagin” by Evgeniy Vodolazkin, second to “The Gift of Speech” by Yuri Buida, third to “Occulttrager” by Alexey Salnikov.

There is no doubt that each of the fifteen books on the shortlist was someone’s favorite. Many were rooting for the novels of Vodolazkin, Salnikov and Buida (“Kommersant” wrote about them respectively October 31 And July 26, 2022 And August 23, 2023) – with the caveat that Evgeniy Vodolazkin, who has already been awarded twice – the first and second prizes of the Big Book – did not submit his most epoch-making novel to this competition. However, there were also many who expected the victory of “Sholokhov” (still the choice of readers, although actively supported by blog subscribers), the same “Rose”, “Bridge Protection Committee” Dmitry Zakharov (second place in the reader vote), “snark snark” Eduard Verkin (third place there – despite the fact that the author does not have a blog at all – and the personal choice of your reviewer). Very different, these books stood out for their pathos – the affirming pathos of “Sholokhov”, the subversive pathos of “The Committee for the Protection of Bridges” (in a self-portrait, Dmitry Zakharov called his work “the literature of social trauma”), the existential (the literature of deeply personal trauma) – “Roses”. The pathos of “snark snark” can also be called existential – only the trauma there does not cry out about itself, but is buried under volumes of chronicles of provincial timelessness funny to tears, but when you get to it, you see not trauma, but an abyss.

Apparently, those who decide did not want pathos. I wanted something familiar, quiet and with nothing to complain about. As a result, you can be happy for Alexei Salnikov – they are getting used to him, you can wish Yuri Buida (who previously received the third prize) further success and sympathize – his novel about the founder of an important publishing house deserved controversy, if not a scandal, but turned out (it seemed) an island of calm. Of course, we should also rejoice for Evgeniy Vodolazkin, who won the vote by a large margin, and wish for new victories – but some more difficult ones, perhaps.