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.
And Other Stories 2012 Title
Happiness is Possible
Read more about Happiness is Possible in the book section.
Publication Date: 5 April 2012
More information
- Happiness is Possible was one of the four Russian books discussed at the And Other Stories’ 2011 Russian Reading Group.
- If you had subscribed to And Other Stories before this book had gone to the typesetter, you would have received one of the limited early copies of it. Find out about subscribing here.
Praise for Oleg Zaionchkovsky
- ‘Zaionchkovsky has an identifiably Russian, dark sense of humour. His writing is rewardingly risky, his slow-burn structure even more so. And … 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
