Expert with ITMO University’s Center for Science Communication; specialist in higher education management; translator.
Three Novels You Won’t Be Able to Put Down
There are many reasons to love fiction. I, for one, appreciate the opportunity to immerse myself in someone else’s story and witness events that I myself wouldn’t ever experience. In today’s compilation, we’ll share three novels by three great authors that will make you forget about reality.
Stoner by John Edward Williams
John Edward Williams only wrote four novels and Stoner is his most popular one. This book found its success almost 50 years after it was first published, when the famous author Anna Gavalda translated the novel into French and it gained fame in France.
Stoner is a story of a country man who becomes interested in literature. He plans to stay on the farm and help his parents until a local official suggests that he apply for a recently opened college at the University of Missouri. Instead of going back to the farm after graduation, Stoner stays at the university and becomes a lecturer.
It’s a novel about life and literature and the fact that a suddenly-found hobby (obsession, interest — you name it) can determine your fate.
Confessions by Jaume Cabré
Jaume Cabré, a Catalonian author, screenwriter, and literary scholar, isn’t very well-known in Russia. His books haven’t been translated until recently — now there are five or six of them available in Russian.
The main character of Confessions is Adrià, an art historian, musician, and polyglot. He reflects on his childhood, his parents, and the time he replaced a Lorenzo Storioni violin with his own in his father’s shop in order to flaunt it in front of a friend.
Adrià then uncovers that many intriguing mysteries of his family are connected with this instrument. He solves a murder, finds out the real story behind the violin, and realizes that his own story began hundreds of years ago, at the Catalonian monastery of Sant Pere del Burgal.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck, a prominent American author, is mostly famous for his books The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and The Winter of Our Discontent.
The Grapes of Wrath is a masterpiece of his early period of writing and one of my favorite books ever that undoubtedly deserves your attention. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is a part of basically all curricula at American schools and colleges.
It describes the time of the Great Depression, when hundreds of thousands lost their jobs and savings. A family of bankrupt farmers travels from Oklahoma to California: they have to leave their past lives behind in order to find a way to survive.
Steinbeck is a genius of writing; his works will keep you engrossed until the very end, even though it may seem that you know what the book is about starting from the first pages. The author immersed himself into the topics he was writing about: he spent the summer of 1936 among the seasonal workers in California and was amazed by their way of living and the government’s attitude towards their problems. Three years later, he traveled to those workers' camps again and then journeyed from Oklahoma to California by car. That’s how The Grapes of Wrath came about. If for some reason you don’t read fiction books, start with this one — I promise that your life will change.