A big name doesn't mean big readership. At least, that’s what the list of Ukraine's top-selling books, published by Focus magazine in January, suggests. Indeed, relatively unknown crime and romance authors are taking the literary scene by storm.
Ask a random Kyivan to name several modern Ukrainian book authors, and you’ll
probably hear names like Yuri Andrukhovych, Serhiy Zhadan or Irena Karpa. Works
of the first two are in college reading lists, and modernist Andrukhovych has
his place in the high school literature program. Karpa is also known for her
music and TV career. But of those three, only Zhadan made it to the Focus’
Top-20 list, and he closes it as 20th.
A good friend of mine, an avid reader with a preference for modern Ukrainian
authors, said she knows ten names from the list, and most of them were in its
second half.
The most successful author of Ukraine, according to the list, is Natalya
Havrilenko, better known by her pen name Simona Vilar, an author of about 20
historical romance novels. Part of them is set in medieval France and England,
but lately the writer focuses on a more patriotic location – Kyivan Rus. Her
heroines are not Anna and Mary anymore, but Svetorada and Karina.
The plot
bears the classic features of a romance novel, with a noblewoman heroine going
through some adventures accompanied by a knight, prince or knyaz.
Vilar sold over 200,000 books in the 45 million strong nation, enough to make
her the top-selling Ukrainian author. By comparison, United Kingdom readers
bought more than five million copies of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the erotic
romance novel by British E.L. James. According to Focus, Vilar’s earnings are
up to Hr 50,000 for a book, a rather modest fee. She, just as many other
authors featured on the list, has a contract with Book Club, Ukraine’s largest
publishing house, and also sells books via mail.
There are also some sentimental novelists on the list, one that wrote a
patriotic historical novel, and, unexpectedly, a couple of criminal novelists.
Crime novels made a big appearance in the 1990s, but the genre had long
stagnated. But as it turned out, books like “Fight of the Thieves” and “Loner’s
Rage” won’t be taken off the shelf yet. Most often, their authors have no
criminal or prison experience, and use their imagination only to depict the
adventures of professional criminals.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
