Boris Akunin (real name Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili). (1956) - Russian writer, novelist, literary critic, translator, Japanologist, public figure. Also published under literary pseudonyms Anna Borisova and Anatoly Brusnikin.
Childhood and youth
Grigory Chkhartishvili was born on May 20, 1956 in a Georgian-Jewish family in the town of Zestaponi, Georgian SSR. His father Shalva Noevich Chkhartishvili (1919-1997) was an artillery officer, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, and mother - Berta Isaakovna Brazinskaya - a teacher of Russian language and literature. Two years after the birth of their son Grigory, in 1958, his parents decide to move to Moscow, where in 1973 Grigory graduated from school No. 36 with in-depth study in English. Impressed by the Japanese Kabuki theater, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Institute of Asian and African Countries in Moscow state university named after M.V. Lomonosov. In 1978 he received a Japanese historian. Engaged in literary translations from English and Japanese.
Literary creativity.
The works of Kobo Abe, Takeshi Kaiko, Shohei Ooka, Shinichi Hoshi, Masahiko Shimada, Mishima Yukio, Yasushi Inoue, Kenji Maruyama were published in translation from Japanese by Boris Akunin. And also from English the works of T. Coragessan Boyle, Malcolm Bradbury, Peter Ustinov and others.
The creative biography of "Boris Akunin" - Grigory Chkhartishvili begins in 1998, when he begins to publish his fiction under the pseudonym "B. Akunin", while he publishes critical and documentary works under his real name.
In his novel "Diamond Chariot" Chkhartishvili deciphers the concept of the word "akunin", translated from Japanese meaning "villain, scoundrel", but a villain of gigantic proportions, in other words, an extraordinary person acting on the side of evil.
The author of the book "The Writer and Suicide", novels and stories of the series "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin", "The Adventures of Sister Pelagia" and "The Adventures of the Master", "Genres", and was also the compiler of the series "The Cure for Boredom".
"Genres" is a series of novels by Boris Akunin, in which the writer attempts a kind of experiment genre literature, presenting the reader with "pure" examples of different genres of fiction, with each of the books bearing the name of the corresponding genre. This collection includes: Children's Book for Boys, Spy Novel, Fiction, Quest, Children's Book for Girls (co-authored with Gloria Mu).
In 2000, B. Akunin was nominated for the "Smirnoff-Booker 2000" award for his novel "Coronation", but was not among the finalists. However, in the same year and for the same novel, the writer receives the Antibooker Prize. In 2003, Chkhartishvili's novel "Azazel" was shortlisted by the British Crime Writers' Association in the "Golden Dagger" section.
Three of his historical novels were published under the pseudonym "Anatoly Brusnikin": "The Ninth Spas", "A Hero of Another Time" and "Bellona". And also under the female pseudonym Anna Borisova: "There ...", "Creative" and "Vremena goda".
Social and political activity
From 1994 to 2000 served as editor-in-chief of the Foreign Literature magazine, editor-in-chief of the twenty-volume Anthology of Japanese Literature, chairman of the board of the Pushkin Library megaproject (Soros Foundation).
In January 2012, Grigory Chkhartishvili became one of the founders of the League of Voters, a socio-political organization whose goal is to control the observance of the electoral rights of citizens.
In 2005, the Japanese Foreign Ministry awarded Grigory Chkhartishvili with a certificate of honor for his contribution to deepening Russian-Japanese relations. The reason for the award was the 150th anniversary of the establishment of interstate relations between Japan and Russia.
In 2007 he was awarded the Nome Prize for best translation from the Japanese writings of the writer Yukio Mishima.
April 29, 2009 Chkhartishvili became a Commander of the Order of the Rising Sun of the fourth degree. The award ceremony took place on May 20 at the Japanese Embassy in Moscow.
On August 10, 2009, he was awarded the prize of the Japan Foundation operating under the auspices of the government for his contribution to the development of cultural ties between Russia and Japan
March 26, 2014, on the opening day of the XVII national exhibition-fair "Books of Russia" Chkhartishvili was awarded the professional anti-award "Paragraph", which celebrates the worst work in the book publishing business in Russia. The special prize "Honorary Illiteracy" for "particularly cynical crimes against Russian literature" was awarded to Boris Akunin for the book "The History of the Russian State. From the origins to the Mongol invasion.
Screen adaptations
2001 - Azazel (director Alexander Adabashyan)
2004 - Turkish gambit(director Janik Fayziev)
2005 - State Councilor (directed by Philip Yankovsky)
2009 - Pelagia and the white bulldog (directed by Yuri Moroz)
2012 - Spy (directed by Alexei Andrianov) - based on the work "Spy novel"
2017 - Decorator (directed by Anton Bormatov)
2012 - shooting in documentary"Swamp Fever", where Chkhartishvili acts as a commentator on the political situation in the country.
Family status.
The first wife of Grigory Chkhartishvili was a Japanese woman, with whom Akunin lived for several years. The second wife, Erika Ernestovna, is a proofreader and translator. There are no children from both marriages. Since 2014 he has been working and living in France, Brittany region.
Fiction writer, literary critic, translator, screenwriter
Fiction writer, literary critic, translator, screenwriter. One of the most published Russian authors, winner of numerous awards and competitions.
Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili (pseudonym - Boris Akunin) was born on May 20, 1956 in Georgia, in the city of Zestaponi (according to other sources - in Tbilisi), in the family of an officer,.
At the age of two, Chkhartishvili moved to Moscow. In 1979 he graduated from the historical and philological department of the Institute of Asian and African countries, Moscow State University. Lomonosov, having received a diploma in Japanese studies.
Later Chkhartishvili was engaged in literary translations from Japanese and English, and also worked as a translator from Japanese, deputy editor of the journal "Foreign Literature",. In particular, he has translated works by such authors as Yukio Mishima, Kenji Maruyama, Yasushi Inoue, Masahiko Shimada, Kobo Abe, Shinichi Hoshi, Takeshi Kaiko, Shohei Ooka, Thomas Coragessan Boyle, Malcolm Bradbury and Peter Ustinov,. In addition, he was the compiler of the Cure for Boredom series of books by modern Western fiction writers, published by the Foreign Literature Publishing House, as well as the editor-in-chief of the 20-volume Anthology of Japanese Literature,.
In 1998, Chkhartishvili began writing fiction under the pseudonym Boris Akunin. Arguing about the etymology of the pseudonym, they wrote that the surname Akunin, despite the Slavic sound, has Japanese roots (two hieroglyphs - "aku" and "nin", which can be translated as "evil person", " evil spirit", "robber", "a person who does not follow the laws." However, in the future, Chkhartishvili continued to publish his critical and documentary works under his real name. So, in 1999 he published the book "Writer and Suicide", dedicated to the problem of suicide. However it began to sell well after the appearance of later works of the author.
Chkhartishvili-Akunin became popular in the early 2000s thanks to a series of detective novels about Erast Fandorin ("Azazel", "Turkish Gambit", "Death of Achilles", "State Councillor", " Special Assignments"," Leviathan "," Coronation "). After a short time, the films "Azazel" (2002), "Turkish Gambit" (2005) and "State Councilor" (2005) were released, the scripts for which were written by Chkhartishvili himself,.
In the fall of 2000, Chkhartishvili resigned as deputy editor-in-chief of the Foreign Literature magazine, deciding to devote himself exclusively to fiction. At the same time, he remained a consultant to the publishing house.
In subsequent years, Akunin continued to publish historical detective stories from the series about the adventures of Erast Fandorin ("The Mistress of Death", "The Lover of Death", "The Diamond Chariot", "The Jade Rosary", and "Yin and Yang"), and also became the author of two series: "Provincial Detective" about the adventures of the detective nun Pelagia ("Pelagia and the White Bulldog", "Pelagia and the Black Monk", "Pelagia and the Red Rooster") and "The Adventures of the Master", the main character of which was Nicholas Fandorin ("Altyn Tolobas", " extracurricular reading"," F.M. ". Akunin also acted as a playwright, becoming the author of a number of plays. The first of them was "The Seagull", where Akunin offered eight versions of the murder of the protagonist of the play of the same name by A.P. Chekhov ("I took" The Seagull "... such still pool, and began to take turns pulling out the devils from there, which each character has his own, "he said in an interview), . In subsequent years, Akunin also wrote the plays Hamlet and The Mirror of Saint Germain."
As part of the "Genres" project, where the author tried to present "existing (and even non-existing) types of fiction", in connection with which the critics called the project "an attempt to create a kind of insectarium of genre literature, each of the colorful types and subspecies of which will be represented by one "classic" copy", Akunin published such works as "Children's Book", "Spy Novel", "Fiction" and "Quest" (the novel is a computer game), , , . Among his works, the press also mentioned the "collection of political satire" "Tales for Idiots", as well as a cycle in the experimental genre of the novel-movie "Death on Brotherhood",. At the end of October 2004, a collection of essays and short stories in the style of a detective thriller "Cemetery Stories" was released. It is noteworthy that the book was written by "co-authors" - Grigory Chkhartishvili and Boris Akunin (in an interview with Ogonyok, Chkhartishvili defined it as "cross-stitching for himself").
Chkhartishvili also appeared in the press as chairman of the board, a megaproject of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation - an international charitable organization established by financier and philanthropist George Soros) "Pushkin Library",.
The media called Akunin one of the most published authors in Russia (in the first half of 2008, the total circulation of his works amounted to about 1.3 million copies). It was also noted that Akunin is also actively published abroad,.
It was noted that Boris Akunin Chkhartishvili called his work under a pseudonym "a literary and business project", constantly emphasizing that he is not a writer, but a "fiction writer" - in the sense that "a fiction writer writes for the reader, and the writer writes for himself". Radio Liberty, referring to the words of Chkhartishvili himself, noted that he "justified his strategy from the very beginning not only as creative, but also as commercial", for which he created the Boris Akunin brand - "on purpose in the region popular literature so that a wide readership can enjoy this product" .
In October 2008, the Russian version of Esquire magazine published the text of an interview that took place in the form of correspondence, which Chkhartishvili took from the former head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is serving his prison term. It was noted that the editors of the magazine invited the writer to choose a person who would be of interest to him. Chkhartishvili in this publication called himself one of those who are "haunted" by the fate of the former oligarch. The writer spoke of the Yukos case as "the most shameful page in the post-Soviet court."
In 2008-2011, Chkhartishvili wrote a number of books under new pseudonyms - Anna Borisova ("There ...", "Creative", "Vremena goda") and Anatoly Brusnikin ("The Ninth Savior" and "Hero of Another Time"). He explained in his blog that for a long time he "wanted to start writing fiction somehow differently", and "in order not to disappoint anyone", he decided to do it on behalf of someone else.
In October 2011, the media reported that the Russian Investigative Committee was checking last novel Chkhartishvili from the series about the adventures of Erast Fandorin "The whole world is a theater" on extremism, but no criminal case was initiated "due to the absence of a crime event",. At the end of December of the same year, the writer again reported on inspections, this time by the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this information was denied by the department itself,.
These checks took place against the backdrop of Chkhartishvili's participation in opposition rallies. In December 2011, elections to the State Duma of the sixth convocation were held in Russia, as a result of which the ruling United Russia party received 49.32 percent of the vote. Opposition representatives announced large-scale falsifications that accompanied the elections and began preparing protests,. Chkhartishvili flew to Russia from France in order, as he wrote on his own blog, to see " historical event with my own eyes" and speak at a rally on December 10 in Moscow at Bolotnaya Square. According to various sources, from 25 thousand to more than 100 thousand people gathered on it,. Chkhartishvili joined the organizing committee for the preparation of the next rally "For Fair Elections", which took place on December 24 on Academician Sakharov Avenue. The writer spoke at it together with Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, as well as other public figures. The rally in Moscow gathered, according to various estimates, from 29 thousand to more than a hundred thousand people,,.
In January 2012, Chkhartishvili, along with Rustem Adagamov, Dmitry Bykov, Leonid Parfenov, Olga Romanova, Yuri Shevchuk and other journalists and cultural figures, became one of the founders of the League of Voters, a public association that advocated holding fair elections in Russia,,. In May of that year, shortly after the inauguration of Vladimir Putin, who had been elected president two months earlier, mass detentions of his opponents took place on the streets of Moscow. At the initiative of Chkhartishvili, a protest action was held - a "writers' walk" with the aim of "establishing whether it is still possible for residents of the capital to freely walk around their own city": in addition to Chkhartishvili himself, Bykov and other writers, 15-20 thousand people took part in it,.
In May 2012, the AIDS-Info newspaper published an article entitled "Boris Akunin: First of all I go to the cemetery, the second - to a brothel", in which the writer allegedly told the journalists of the publication about some details of his intimate life. In September of the same year, Chkhartishvili went to court demanding to recover from the publication a million rubles for the illegal use of his name and how much more as compensation for moral damage, explaining that he had never given such an interview to the newspaper,. In October, the Izmailovsky Court of Moscow satisfied Chkhartishvili's claim, obliging AIDS-Info to print a refutation and exacting compensation from the publication in the amount of 250 thousand rubles,.
The media wrote about the high fees of Chkhartishvili the fiction writer. He himself admitted this, stating: "Since our country is not rich, I can be considered a bourgeois ...". Among the writer's hobbies were communication with friends, love of travel and computer games , .
Chkhartishvili is a laureate of numerous professional awards. In 2000, he became the winner of the competition "Persons of the Year" organized by the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in the nomination "Writer of the Year". For the script of the film "Azazel" Chkhartishvili became the winner of the national television competition "TEFI-2002" in the nomination "Best Screenwriter". In 2004, the writer became a holder of the French Order of Academic Palms,,, and in 2007 he was awarded the Noma Prize - for the best translation from Japanese works by Yukio Mishima. In April 2009, the Japanese government awarded the writer the state award of the country - the Order of the Rising Sun, and in August, the Japan Foundation, operating under the auspices of the government, awarded Chkhartishvili its 2009 award for his contribution to the development of cultural ties between the two countries. In September 2012, Chkhartishvili won the Made in Russia award organized by Snob magazine in the Literature nomination, as well as the GQ magazine's Person of the Year 2012 award in the Writer of the Year nomination,,.
Chkhartishvili lives in Moscow. The writer is married. His wife - Erika Ernestovna, according to the writer himself, not only helps him build relationships with journalists, but also "protects" him ("because I don't have enough time to deal with all sorts of business issues").
Used materials
Akunin's lawyer: AIDS-Info should write a rebuttal in large print. - Arguments and Facts - Moscow, 24.10.2012
The court exacted 250,000 rubles from the AIDS-Info newspaper on the suit of Boris Akunin. - RAPSI, 24.10.2012
Winners of the "GQ Person of the Year 2012" award. - GQ, 21.09.2012
Pussy Riot received an award for the best art project. - RBC, 14.09.2012
"Made in Russia". Winners. - Snob.ru, 13.09.2012
On September 19, a Moscow court will consider Akunin's lawsuit against the AIDS-Info newspaper. - Interfax, 13.09.2012
Anastasia Petrova. Akunin demands 2 million for a fake sex interview. - Life News Online, 13.09.2012
The speaker of the Moscow City Duma explained why the "control walk" took place. - Russian news service, 15.05.2012
Oleg Kashin. Union of Readers. - Kommersant, 05/14/2012. - No. 84/P (4869)
Declaration on the establishment of the League of Electors. - League of Voters (ligaizbirateley.ru), 18.02.2012
Vasily Ivanov, Maria Muromskaya. Ready to work. - Kasparov.ru, 18.01.2012
Publicism
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Birth name: Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili
Aliases (nicknames):
Boris Akunin,
Anatoly Brusnikin,
Anna Borisova and others.
Place of birth: Zestaponi, Georgian SSR, USSR.
Citizenship: USSR, Russia and others.
Permanent location:
France: Suburb of Paris.
Occupation: novelist, playwright, translator, literary critic.
Genre: detective.
Biography:
Grigory Chkhartishvili was born into the family of artillery officer Shalva Chkhartishvili and Russian language and literature teacher Berta Isaakovna Brazinskaya. In 1958 the family moved to Moscow. In 1973 he graduated from school number 36 with in-depth study of the English language. He graduated from the historical and philological department of the Institute of Asian and African Countries (MSU), has a diploma in Japanese history. was engaged literary translation from Japanese and English. Chkhartishvili's translation was published by Japanese authors Mishima Yukio, Kenji Maruyama, Yasushi Inoue, Masahiko Shimada, Kobo Abe, Shinichi Hoshi, Takeshi Kaiko, Shohei Ooka, as well as representatives of the American and English Literature(T. Coragessan Boyle, Malcolm Bradbury, Peter Ustinov, etc.) Worked as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Literature magazine (1994-2000); editor-in-chief of the 20-volume Anthology of Japanese Literature, chairman of the board of the Pushkin Library megaproject (Soros Foundation). Since 1998, Grigory Chkhartishvili has been writing fiction under the pseudonym “B. Akunin. Deciphering "B" as "Boris" appeared a few years later, when the writer began to be interviewed frequently. Japanese word"akunin" roughly corresponds to:
"a villain who is a strong and strong-willed person." You can learn more about this word in one of B. Akunin's books
(G. Chkhartishvili) "The Diamond Chariot".
Grigory Chkhartishvili publishes critical and documentary works under his real name. In addition to the novels and stories from the New Detective series (The Adventures of Erast Fandorin) that brought him fame, Akunin created the Provincial Detective series (The Adventures of Sister Pelagia), The Adventures of the Master, Genres and was the compiler of the Medicine boredom". On April 29, 2009, Boris Akunin became a Commander of the Order of the Rising Sun, fourth degree. For his contribution to the development of cultural ties between Russia and Japan, Boris Akunin was awarded a prize from the Japan Foundation operating under the auspices of the government.
Married. The first wife is a Japanese woman, with whom Akunin lived for several years. The second wife, Erika Ernestovna, is a proofreader and translator. No kids.
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Political views:
Grigory Chkhartishvili is known for his harsh statements and criticism of the Russian authorities. So, in one interview, Chkhartishvili compared Putin with Emperor Caligula, "who preferred to be more feared than loved." According to Chkhartishvili, Putin allegedly took offense at Grigory Chkhartishvili because of his Georgian origin.
The writer spoke of the Yukos case as “the most shameful page of the post-Soviet court.” After the second sentence was passed on M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev. In December 2010, he proposed a plan to "amputate" Russia. After the elections to the State Duma (2011), Grigory Chkhartishvili noted:
“The main circus is ahead of us. Now a candidate for life rulers will come to the fore. All rotten tomatoes will fly not to a fake party, but personally to him, dear and beloved. For three months, stupid sycophants from Putin's entourage will stimulate the population to vomit with their propaganda. And pay him, poor thing. He will travel around the country, meet with voters. Give him a whistle, he loves it. And envy Muscovites. We have a wonderful opportunity to blow all the horns when the national leader races past paralyzed traffic flows. Du-doo, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Do you hear our voices? And then let the press secretary explain that these are the sounds of popular jubilation. Inevitably, a situation will arise when the lower classes no longer want it, the upper classes have completely decomposed, and the money has run out. A buzz will begin in the country. It will be too late for you to leave in a good way, and you will order to shoot, and blood will be shed, but you will be thrown off anyway. I do not wish you the fate of Muammar Gaddafi, honestly. Would have cut it off while there was still time, huh? A plausible pretext is always found. Health problems, family circumstances, the appearance of the archangel. They would hand over the reins to the successor (you don’t know how otherwise), and he would take care of your calm old age ”
In January 2012, Grigory Chkhartishvili became one of the founders of the League of Voters social and political organization. The political goal of the League: “To prevent by all possible means the legitimate re-election of V.V. Putin on new term President of the Russian Federation"
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Information for thought:
Reprint of an article from the Internet.
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"Boris Akunin told how to free the butcher Khodorkovsky"
“The writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, who writes under the pseudonym Boris Akunin, is known for his reverent attitude towards Russian prisoner number one and the man with the middle name Borisovich - Khodorkovsky. It is known that both Boris and Borisovich are actively corresponding with each other, and the "Boris" who is at large, ardently defends the Borisovich who is behind bars. One might think: "Oh, what an international - a Georgian protects a Jew from Bloody Gebni!", but no such luck! International somehow does not work. For Grishka Chkhartishvili, only the father is Georgian, and his mother is a Jewess named Berta Isaakovna Brazinskaya, which makes Grisha-Boris automatically a Jew, because it is well known that among Jews the nationality of a child is determined strictly by the nationality of the mother and nothing else! But that's not the point. The fact is that "Boris Akunin" has long and firmly grown a grudge against Russia. Either because of the conflict and the subsequent war with Georgia, or because of the arrest of a fellow believer and, concurrently, a malicious tax evader Khodorkovsky. Even the tax shmon in the edition where Grigory Chkhartishvili is published, he took on his own account - they say, "shmon because of the publication of my books." And now, a well-known writer who has received a name in Russia, readers' love and popularity, once again attacked one of the leaders of the nation, calling for "Amputation" for the country, that is, to expel the Prime Minister from office in order to release the tax schemer, who is behind grille since 2003. In connection with this, it is recalled that Khodorkovsky was arrested at the moment when he was about to fly to one of the remote northern regions of the country any minute to become an immediately elected local deputy there, who cannot be arrested because of parliamentary immunity. The leader of that region was his friend, so the election was a decided matter. However, no luck! And instead of performing complex deputy duties, the billionaire Khodorkovsky had to master the no less difficult profession of a seamstress-minder for sewing slippers.
Boris Akunin is a famous writer who became famous for a series of books about a talented nobleman. Historical and pseudo-historical works of Akunin are especially reliable, which is due not only to the talent of the writer, but also to his extensive knowledge. The author is a Japanese historian by education, has devoted a lot of time literary activity.
At some point, Akunin gained such popularity that he felt cramped within the framework of one name, from which they expect the results of creativity in a certain genre. So there were two more "writers". For several years, Boris secretly published under the pseudonym Anatoly Brusnikin, as well as Anna Borisova. The second "I" of Akunin also quickly reached the tops of sales. This experiment was necessary for the writer to freely try out new styles and methods, and also to show the reader that popularity can fall on his head unexpectedly.
Childhood and youth
Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili (this is the name of Akunina in life) was born in a small Georgian town in the family of an artilleryman and a teacher of the Russian language. In 1958, the parents decided to move to Moscow. Little Gregory was registered in school number 36 with an English bias.
In 1973, the future novelist graduated from high school and entered the Institute of Asian and African Countries. I studied there until 1978. Fellow students recalled that the writer in his youth was known as the soul of the company, a perfectionist and a favorite of girls. Now Boris does not have lush hair, and then the young man for curly hair was nicknamed Angel Davis, by analogy with the American human rights activist.
Having received a diploma in Japanese history, Boris took up translations, as he was fluent in Japanese and English. Started translating publications by Japanese authors, in particular Kenji Maruyama, Shinichi Hoshi, Mishima Yukio and others. He continued to publish translated works and Anglo-American representatives of literary activity.
Books
1994-2000 in the biography of Boris Akunin is devoted to work at the publishing house "Foreign Literature", where the writer served as editor (and later editor-in-chief) of the 20-volume Anthology of Japanese Literature. After that, he became the chairman of the Pushkin Library project under the supervision of, or rather, his international charitable organization.
Since 1998 he has been publishing fiction, under the signature B. Akunin. The transcript of part of the pseudonym "B" became known to readers as Boris after the interview. The loud nickname Akunin consists of several Japanese hieroglyphs and in one of the works, in the novel of the Fandorin cycle "The Diamond Chariot", is interpreted as "a supporter of evil, a villain, a scoundrel." The pseudonym is interpreted and how literary game with the name of the famous anarchist Bakunin.
A series of short stories and novels of a detective nature "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin" brought fame and recognition to Akunin. Among the first works of the new format is the novel "Azazel". In a series of books about Fandorin, the author experiments with various sub-genres of the detective story. For example, "Leviathan" is a hermetic detective (that is, the action takes place in a confined space, and the circle of suspects is clearly delineated), and the next "Death of Achilles" is a high-society novel.
The author himself writes about the direction of a particular book and does not repeat himself in subgenres, for this Boris even introduces rather exotic designations, such as "Dickensian detective" or "high society detective".
Azazel novel by Boris Akunin This series of books is personalized. The protagonist, at the beginning of the story, the young nobleman Erast Fandorin, became one of the main "chips" of the author. Akunin not only described the life of the hero from youth to old age, but also returned to him more than once in other series, describing the descendants of the Fandorins or parallel stories.
Erast Petrovich comes from a bankrupt noble family, he is forced to enter the service in order to support himself, and later goes to the detective department. Fandorin does not have a phenomenal intellect or a special approach, but he is smart and observant, which makes his reasoning understandable and interesting for the reader. Distinctive features character is an excessive emotional detachment that appeared in him after death main love his life and incredible luck in gambling. Fandorin always wins at poker and bets, he cannot die at Russian roulette.
Boris Akunin's novels have been translated into 35 languages Boris Akunin was nominated for the Booker-Smirnoff prize for the first time, but did not qualify for the final. Next came the Antibooker nomination, where the novelist received an award. The next award went to the novel "Azazel" as part of the "New Detective" series. The work was shortlisted by the British Crime Writers Association.
In the "Genres" series, the creator presented readers with several different formats of fiction. If the adventure format "New Detective" is a reflection of a variety of detective direction, then in "Genres" there is a kind of experiment of literary genres with a fictional bias. The name of the book corresponds to the literary genre, and the pioneer is "Children's Book", which goes into retail on February 4, 2004. Following, with a distance of a week, "Spy novel", "Fiction" and "Quest" go on sale.
In January 2012, it became known that the previously hiding author popular works in the format historical novel"Ninth Spas", "Bellona", "Hero of another time" and others is none other than Akunin himself. The novels are presented under the pseudonym Anatoly Brusnikin.
A number of novels by the famous novelist have been filmed. Among them are Azazel, the first book about Erast Fandorin, and Pelagia. The films "Turkish Gambit" and "State Counselor", also dedicated to extraordinary life Fandorin. The 13th book in the New Detective series was the novel The Whole World is a Theater.
Boris Akunin marked as the most read author modern Russia. In 2008, the total circulation of his works exceeded 1.3 million copies, and, according to Forbes, from 2004 to 2005, Boris Akunin's income was $ 2 million. Akunin's fiction has been translated into 35 languages and published in Japan, the Netherlands, Germany , Italy, Finland, France.
"History of the Russian State" by Boris Akunin is a bestseller of the same name, a multi-volume answer to questions. The first volume "From Origins to the Mongol Invasion" was presented to the public in November 2013 and released in several versions: in a traditional paper version with several hundred color illustrations and maps, in a similar electronic version, an audiobook with dubbing, and a budget digital format without accompanying illustrations. The second volume is called "Part of Asia. The Horde Period".
"History of the Russian State" by Boris Akunin The book was created for people who want to get to know the history of Russia better, but it is difficult to perceive the academic presentation. By creating the project, Boris Akunin is pursuing the goal of retelling the story in an objective, free dialect in a simple and accessible way. At the same time, the literary critic studied numerous sources, compared information, and sifted out doubtful or unconfirmed data.
A similar work has become a reference point for an accessible and easy-to-understand presentation.
Personal life
The personal life of Boris Akunin is not marked by loud and scandalous novels. The first wife of the famous writer was a Japanese woman. The couple met at the university where the writer studied. Boris got into a conversation with a charming graduate student during his next visit. Stories about the Country rising sun Akunin was carried away from the lips of a stranger, and the girl was captivated Russian culture and got to know the mysterious Russian soul. However, representatives of different cultures were endowed with at least strong characters which soon affected their life together. The family broke up.
After breaking up with the oriental beauty, Boris Akunin met his current beloved woman Erika Ernestovna. In the photo and in life, the couple is happy and even somewhat similar. The wife is a professional editor, which allows you to jointly run a family business and not waste time looking for assistants.
Erica took on the responsibility of dealing with agents, publishers and the press, which greatly facilitates the author's workflow. Boris Akunin shares his doubts about this or that project with his wife. If a woman confirms the writer's doubts, then the fragment needs to be improved.
The family lives in perfect harmony, the writer admits that he is really happy. The couple has no children, but Akunin's new books can be considered their joint brainchild.
In 2014, disagreeing with the policy of the Russian state, Boris and Erica moved to France. As the writer explained in an interview, for many years a mood reigned in his environment, described by the phrase “Well, sit with yours. When you're wiser, call."
“The current political power is leading the country to death, to collapse. In terms of Russia's position in the world, this is a course towards the deepening isolation of the country, towards opposing it to the rest of the world. In the future - the iron curtain. And the people, the people, do not have the readiness and desire to oppose this regime,” says Akunin.
However, Boris says that he did not leave the country forever, so you should not call him an emigrant. Those who are afraid for their own lives are emigrating from Russia. Akunin, according to him, is not in danger, and the family will return at any moment, as soon as the right situation develops. Therefore, the writer still considers himself an expat.
Boris Akunin co-authored the public figure's program when he was going to run in the Russian presidential elections in 2018. At the same time, the novelist perfectly understood that this candidate had no prospects, although the projects proposed by the oppositionist's team would have found understanding among citizens. The foundation and starting point of change in the event of Navalny's victory would be the idea of educating and educating a new generation, so that in 20 years the country would be inhabited by accomplished and successful people.
Boris Akunin now
In 2018, the New Detective series was replenished with another novel about the detective Fandorin, the last one, as Boris wrote on the page in
Boris Akunin (full real name Georgy Shalvovich Chkhartishvili) is a famous and talented writer, whose name is well known today both in Russia and abroad. His books have been translated into dozens of languages, and many of his novels have already been filmed. Such facts inspire respect.But what else do we know about the life and work of this bright and interesting writer? How did his literary career start? And at what stage is she now? In order to shed light on all these questions, today we will try to look into the past of the great writer. After all, where, if not there, to look for the truth about this or that person?
Early years, childhood and the family of Boris Akunin
Grigory Chkhartishvili (namely, this is the real name of Boris Akunin) was born into the Georgian-Jewish family of Shalva Chkhartishvili and Berta Isaakovna Brazinskaya. The father of our today's hero was an artillery officer, and my mother devoted almost her entire life to studying and teaching the Russian language and literature.Despite the fact that the small town of Zestafoni is the hometown of the Georgian writer, he practically did not live in the Caucasus. Already in 1958, when our today's hero was only two years old, his family moved to live in Moscow, where he subsequently spent almost the entire life of the now famous writer.
In the Russian capital, George visited high school No. 36, which was distinguished by an in-depth study of the English language, and after receiving a diploma, he began to study at the historical and philological department of Moscow State University (Faculty of Asian and African countries). What caused such an unusual choice is not known for certain today. However, Japanese and Asian notes are easily distinguishable in almost all the works of our today's hero.
Having received a diploma in Japanese history, the future writer began working as a translator on English and Japanese texts. At that time, in the translation of George Chkhartishvili, a whole lot of books by such well-known authors in Japan as Masahiko Shimada, Mishima Yukio, Shohei Ooka, Yasushi Inoue, Kenji Maruyama and many others were published. In addition, our today's hero had a hand in the creation of Russian-language adaptations of novels by Malcolm Bradbury, T. Coragessan Boyle, and Peter Ustinov.
Boris Akunin. About his book “History of the Russian state. Part of Europe"
During this period, "Boris Akunin" studied the writing style of other authors, and also hatched plans to create his own literary works.
However, in the first place during this period, for him, there were still more mundane things. In 1994, our today's hero took over as editor-in-chief of the Foreign Literature publication, and also began working on the twenty-volume (!) Anthology of Japanese Literature. In addition, with the support of the well-known Soros Foundation, Georgy Chkhartishvili began to work on large-scale project"Pushkin Library".
Literary creativity of Boris Akunin
In 1998, our today's hero begins to write his own fiction novels. Similar works are published under the pseudonym "B. Akunin. It is quite remarkable that the decoding of "B" as "Boris" will appear much later, when the writer begins to give interviews frequently. In turn, the surname "Akunin" is translated only as "scoundrel." One of the heroes of Giorgi Chkhartishvili speaks about this in the novel "The Diamond Chariot".It is also quite interesting that the first book written by the author is the project “Writer and Suicide”, which was completed in 1997, but was published only two years later (published under the name of Georgy Chkhartishvili). The first work of the author, published under the pseudonym "Boris Akunin", was the sensational novel "Azazel", which became very popular almost immediately after publication.
Such success allowed the writer to leave his former job and devote himself entirely to literary creativity. Thanks to this, the following year, three new books by Boris Akunin saw the light at once - The Turkish Gambit, Leviathan, and The Death of Achilles. The unifying link of all these works was the personality of the protagonist - Erast Fandorin, who later became one of the permanent characters moving from one book of the writer to another.
Boris Akunin's performance at Bolotnaya
Returning to the topic literary works Akunin, we note that our today's hero also managed to demonstrate impressive productivity in 1999, when three more new novels from the cycle about Erast Fandorin appeared on the shelves of bookstores (“Jack of Spades”, “Decorator”, “State Councilor”) . Giorgi Chkhartishvili was able to somewhat move away from the image of his beloved character only a year later - in 2000. During this period, he began two new cycles of novels - The Adventures of the Master, as well as The Provincial Detective (with the nun Pelagia as the central acting character).
In the subsequent career of the writer, several directions in his work clearly stood out. So, works of art our today's hero wrote under the pseudonym Boris Akunin; and published documentary and critical works exclusively under his own name. In addition, relatively recently, the Georgian writer admitted that it was he who published his novels in the past under the pseudonyms Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova.
Political views, Boris Akunin today
Grigory Chkhartishvili has repeatedly spoken out critically against the current system of Russian power. So, in particular, in one of his interviews, he called Vladimir Putin the emperor Caligula, "who prefers to be more afraid than loved." In addition, he repeatedly spoke about his negative attitude towards the idea of an "eternal ruler". 
In January 2012, our today's hero became one of the founders public organization"League of Voters", which was engaged in protecting the rights of citizens to fair and unbiased elections.