Vladimir Sorokin Right on the Nose Again

 

Vladimir Sorokin has beaten off fierce competition to win the 2011 Nose Prize. The Nose Prize, now in the second year of its existence, was established by the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund to reward books revealing new trends in Russian society.

 

Sorokin was joined on the shortlist for 2010 by fellow modern heavyweights Victor Pelevin and Pavel Peppershtein, as well as representatives of every aspect of contemporary life, but his fantastical and satirical Blizzard, in which a country doctor treats a village struck with a zombie plague, most impressed the jury.

 

The Nose Prize is special not only for its sociological focus, but for the open debates between jury members, who this announced that 2010 marked ‘the end of the Soviet epoch.’ Sorokin, it seems, has proved his ability to grasp the essence of society in any era.