Notebook

Prilepin takes top honor

The jury for Russia’s National Bestseller Prize has named Zakhar Prilepin’s book Sin the “Book of the Decade.” (natsbest.ru) Each RNB prizewinner of the past ten years was in contention for the title, including Dmitry Bykov’s biography of Pasternak, Mikhail Shishkin’s 2005 novel Venerin Volos (Maiden’s Hair) and Viktor Pelevin’s DPP(NN). Prilepin’s novel is a series of stories about a soldier who returns home from Chechnya and restarts his life by working in various mundane jobs.

The jury represented the full spectrum of Russian intellectuals, from writer (and radical political activist) Eduard Limonov, to Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich. The famously reclusive Pelevin, whose appearance was widely advertised by the organizers, failed to show.