Victor Pelevin

Genres

Contemporary Fiction

Biography

Victor Pelevin was born in Moscow in 1962. He graduated with a degree in electromechanical engineering from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. While working as an engineer, he attended seminars in creative writing at the Literature Institute. He became an editor of Science and Religion magazine and was responsible for an ongoing series of articles on Eastern mysticism. Pelevin's first story was published in 1989, and for the next three years his short stories appeared in various magazines and compilations. In 1992 a book of Pelevin's collected stories, The Blue Lantern, received the first annual Russian Little Booker Prize. His first novel, Omon Ra, was published in 1992. In the early nineties, it seemed as if the tidal wave of mass literature would swallow the serious literary novel: the emergence of Pelevin, who was able to blend action with contemplation, energised a whole generation of new readers and, it could be said, saved Russian literature. 

 

Pelevin rarely gives interviews; when he does, he has been known to talk about the nature of the mind rather than his own writing. He has permitted all of his texts in Russian written prior to 2006 to be published on the Internet for non-commercial use.

 

Although his books usually follow the outward conventions of science fiction, Pelevin uses these commonplaces to construct involved, multi-layered postmodernist texts, fusing together elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies. Some critics relate his writing to the New Sincerity and New Realism literary movements. Pelevin's work is usually devoid of dialogue between the author and the reader, whether through plot, character development, literary form or narrative language. This corresponds to his philosophy that, for the most part, it is the reader who infuses the text with meaning. This philosophy is, however, occasionally, subject to Pelevin's wicked sense of humour: the back-cover of his novel Babylon bears the inscription, 'Any thoughts that cross your mind while reading this book are subject to copyright. Unauthorized reflection on them is prohibited.'

 

Pelevin has the unique ability to intertwine the most fleeting manifestations of (post)modern culture with the most ancient philosophies of mind and self, without ever threatening the reader's enjoyment by being ponderous or humourless: this gift has made him not only the most prominent writer in Russia, but also, through widespread translation, a star of world literature.

Prizes and awards

2010

Shortlisted for the Big Book Prize, 'T'

2003Apollon Grigoriev Award (DTP NN / ДПП NN)
2003

National Bestseller (DTP NN / ДПП NN)

2001Nonina Best Foreign Writer Award
2000The Schoenfeld Prize (Generation P / Generation П)
1997

The Wanderer Prize (Chapayev and Void / Чапаев и пустота)

1995The Wanderer Prize (Zombification / Зомбификация)
1993The Interpresscon Prize (The Prince of Gosplan / Принц Госплана)
1993The Interpresscon Prize (Omon Ra / Омон Ра)
1993

The Great Ring Prize (Tambourine on Top of the World / Бубен верхнего мира)

1993

The Bronze Snail Award (Omon Ra / Омон Ра)

1992Small Booker Prize (The Blue Lantern and Other Stories / Синий фонарь и другие рассказы)
1991

The Great Ring Prize (The Prince of Gosplan / Принц Госплана)

1990

The Great Ring Prize (Reenactors / Реконструктор)

1990The Golden Ball Prize (The Hermit and Sixfinger / Затворник и Шестипалый)

Books

  • Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady, 2010
  • t, 2009
  • P5: Farewell songs of the Political Pygmies of Pindostan / П5: прощальные песни политических пигмеев Пиндостана, 2008
  • Empire V / Ампир В, 2006
  • The Sacred Book of the Werewolf / Священная Книга Оборотня, 2005
  • The Helmet of Horror / Шлем ужаса, 2005
  • The Yellow Arrow / Желтая стрела, 2004
  • Numbers / Числа, 2003
  • DTP NN (Dialectics of The Transitional Period from Nowhere to Nowhere) / ДПП NN (Диалектика Переходного Периода из Ниоткуда в Никуда), 2003
  • Generation 'P' / Generation «П», 1999
  • Chapayev and Void / Чапаев и Пустота, 1996
  • The Life of Insects / Жизнь насекомых, 1993
  • Omon Ra / Омон Ра, 1991
  • Prince of Central Planning / Принц Госплана, 1991
  • Blue Lantern and Other Stories / Синий фонарь и другие рассказы, 1991

Foreign Publications

In English

Contact information