Russian Booker – 25: Materials on the history of the prize

Abstract

The book assists in profound understanding of the development processes of the novel as a genre, and offers a nuanced overview of the annual events around the Booker Prize awarded for the best novel in Russia and the UK. Introducing the book is an article by Sir Michael Caine (1927—1999), who initiated the Russian Booker Prize and chaired its advisory committee. The publication is an extract from the historical essay ‘The Booker Story’. The first section, ‘Twenty five years in the Booker mirror’, opens with a story about the origins and history of the Russian Booker. In ‘Between the two cultures. A story told by documents and reminiscences of the participants (1992—1996)’, Russian Booker’s committee secretary Igor Shaytanov describes it as the first independent literary prize in the new Russia, free of any ties to the state policy. The second section is devoted to the UK’s Man Booker Prize. In his article ‘The British Booker: a portrait of an era’ Alastair Niven describes the events that culminate in creation of a portrait of the British literature spanning fifty years. The book’s third section is titled ‘The chronicle of the Booker events 1992—2016’.