Zaionchkovsky has an identifiably Russian, dark sense of humour. His writing is rewardingly risky. His novel will continue to make you think after you’ve finished it: about love, storytelling and Moscow.
- A.D. Miller
Oleg Zaionchkovsky was born in 1959 in Samara, on the east bank of the Volga River. His first book, Sergeev and the Town, was shortlisted for both the Russian Booker Prize and the National Bestseller Prize. In 2010, Happiness is Possible was shortlisted for both the Russian Booker and the Russian Big Book prize. He spent all his adult life, until a recent move to Moscow, in the small town of Khotkovo, working as a test engineer in a factory making rocket engines.
Happiness is Possible
More information
- Read more about Happiness is Possible in the book section.
- Happiness is Possible was one of the four Russian books discussed at the And Other Stories’ 2011 Russian Reading Group, where it was widely loved for its wryly comic humour.
- This title was sent out to And Other Stories subscribers early in 2012. Find out about subscribing to upcoming titles here.
Praise for Oleg Zaionchkovsky
- ‘A sincere homage to the mundane romances and workaday tragedies that constitute city life.’ TLS
- ‘Zaionchkovsky has an identifiably Russian, dark sense of humour. His writing is rewardingly risky. His novel will continue to make you think after you’ve finished it: about love, storytelling and Moscow.’ A.D. Miller
- ‘Artlessness is the defining aspect of Zaionchkovsky’s diction: the absolute harmony of style and dramatic development seems to be entirely natural’ Time Out
- ‘Zaionchkovsky is one of those writers with a natural charm, so at ease with themselves and so self-sufficient that they have no need of superfluous dramatics – he simply has enough talent by himself to create something.’ Lev Danilkin
- ‘Oleg Zaionchkovsky makes Moscow small and cosy and its residents friendly, small town neighbours… This is feel good fiction, pure and simple. And anyone who is not happy with that is beyond help.’ – Maya Kucherskaya
