Dina Rubina
Genres
Contemporary Fiction
Biography
Dina Rubina is one of the most widely-read Russian authors alive today. She was born in 1953, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she later studied music at the Tashkent Conservatory. She moved to Moscow in the mid-1980s, and then to Israel in 1990, although she returned to Russia for three years at the turn of the this century as Israel's cultural liaison; she currently resides in a suburb of Jerusalem.
When she was sixteen, Rubina's first short story appeared in the journal Iunost' , which continued to publish her work until the end of the Soviet Union. Life in the colourful environment of Tashkent was not always easy, and Rubina had to turn to playwriting to make ends meet. In the 1980s her stories started to be adapted for stage and screen. It was during the filming of one of these that Rubina met her current husband and decided to move to Moscow. Rubina's life and adventures since 1990 and her family's emigration to Israel have been well-documented in her literary output of that period.
Her most recent novel, On the Sunny Side of the Street, won Russia's Radio Booker Literary Award (2007), the Big Book Literary Prize Bronze Award (2007) and was shortlisted for the Russian Booker (2006). Her other books include novels The Syndicate (2004), Here Comes the Messiah! (1996) and the collection of short stories On Upper Maslovka (2001). Her latest novels are Leonardo's Handwriting (2008), The White Dove of Cordoba (2009) and The Petrushka Syndrome (2010). Her work has won awards in Uzbekistan, Israel, and France, and has been translated into 20 languages. Here Comes the Messiah! is available in English translation by Daniel M. Jaffe, as are several of her shorter pieces.
Prizes and awards
| 2010 | Russian Prize, (The White Dove of Cordoba/ Белая голубка Кордовы) |
| 2009 | Portal Prize (Leonardo's Handwriting / Почерк Леонардо) |
| 2008 | Literary Prize of the Oleg Tabakov fund (short story Adam and Miryam / рассказ Адам и Мирьям) |
| 2007 | Russia's Radio Booker Literary Award (On the Sunny Side of the Street / На солнечной стороне улицы) |
| 2007 | Big Book Literary Prize (On the Sunny Side of the Street / На солнечной стороне улицы) |
| 2006 | Shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize (On the Sunny Side of the Street / На солнечной стороне улицы) |
| 1995 | The Israeli Writers’ Union Award (Here Comes the Messiah! / Вот идет Мессия!) |
| 1990 | The Arie Dulchin Award (An Intellectual Sat Down on the Road / Один интелигент уселся на дороге) |
Books
- Petrushka Syndrome / Синдром Петрушки, 2010
- The White Dove of Cordoba, 2009
- Leonardo's Handwriting / Почерк Леонардо, 2008
- On the Sunny Side of the Street / На солнечной стороне улицы, 2006
- The Syndicate / Синдикат, 2004
- On Upper Maslovka / На Верхней Масловке, 2001
- The Last Boar of the Pontevedra Forests / Последний кабан из лесов Понтеведра, 1998
- Here Comes the Messiah! / Вот идет Мессия!, 1996
- An Intellectual Sat Down on the Road / Один интеллигент уселся на дороге, 1994
Sample translations
The White Dove of Cordoba (Белая голубка Кордовы)