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Usually, when you hear about a book project, you involuntarily get on your guard: is it possible to read this or is it only the creative thought of PR specialists that beats here? The worst fears are most often confirmed. The more pleasant is the exception to the unpleasant rule, albeit not achieved entirely by our efforts.
«Life after death. 8 + 8: A collection of stories by Russian and Chinese writers «is a continuation of an international project launched three years ago by the largest publishing house in China» People's Literature «. Its essence is that the two countries agree with each other to publish an anthology — eight stories on each side on a chosen topic. For example, in the Italian version it was “Food and Sex”, in the Spanish version it was “Animals”, in the Arabic version it was “House and Bird”, in the English version it was “Science Fiction”.
Last year, Narodnaya Literatura and the Moscow publishing house Vremya, involved in the participation, chose a theme for a Russian-Chinese collection. The theme of death in our context arose quite organically. It's another matter, here it is important where to put the emphasis — and the emphasis by the whole structure of the collection is placed on the existence of life after death. As the compiler Irina Barmetova writes in her detailed foreword, when choosing and ordering stories, she had in mind not so much the transition to another world, as “an expanded metaphor of everyday life, when one or another fatal act or inaction leads to death — whether spiritual or spiritual. but «partial death». Volumes of memoirs of those who have been beyond consciousness have been written about the return to the world of the living, the behavior of those who have returned from the other world is studied by doctors, scientists, and religious scholars.
Writers are, rather, interested in the transformation of personality after such an unprecedented experience. The book is about him.
Eight (the most favorable number among the Chinese) Chinese stories, according to the compiler's plan, enter into a difficult dialogue with the eight Russian ones. Dialogue between two civilizations, two different worlds. For the Chinese, the number eight is a symbol of infinity, a sign of continuous rebirth and spiritual improvement, therefore, the stories of Russian writers are structured by the compiler in such a way as to reveal the interconnection of meanings and ideas in our worldview. Fortunately, Leonid Yuzefovich, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Denis Dragunsky, Roman Senchin, Denis Osokin, Marina Akhmedova, Alexander Bushkovsky, Arina Obukh know how to lead the reader through the routine of life to understand its essence. Chinese surnames are unlikely to say much to our reader, so the book is provided with detailed biographical notes. From them it is clear that it includes the stories of the classics, and the avant-garde, and young reformers, according to whom one can imagine the multitude of colors of the latest Chinese literature. This small collection brought together modernist texts, realistic urban prose, fantasy, and detective stories. Different in style (the well-known translator from Chinese Maria Semenyuk was responsible for the quality of the translation), inventive in terms of plots, they give an idea of the younger generation, and show traditional values, and most importantly — at least a little closer to understanding the psychology of the people who have always occupied our imagination , and now a place in our real life.