Laureates of the prestigious "Big Book-2011" literary award were announced on November 29, in Moscow.

      The first prize was given to Mikhail Shishkin for his book "Pismovnik". The second award was given to Vladimir Sorokin for "Metel" ("The Snowstorm") and Dmitry Bykov was named the third winner for his novel "Ostromov ili Uchenik Charodeya" ("Ostromov or the Wizard's Pupil").

      All the three winners will be presented with cash awards. Award's fund is estimated at 5,5, million roubles, and 3 millions of that sum is supposed to be given to the first award's laureate.

        On November 23, a laureate of the "Big Book" people's choice online voting was also announced. Readers chose Mikhail Shishik with his "Pismopvnik", the choice which later was supported by the professional jury.

      The short-list of the award consisted of ten finalists. The full list of them you can see here (in Russian).

      Besides the main contest, the "Big Book" jury annually gives a special honourable award "For Honour and Dignity" to Russian prominent writers. This year the award was given to Fazil Iskander. The award "For the Contribution to Literature" was given to Peter Mayer - an English-American publisher and the ex-head of the Penguin publishing house, which had issued many books of Russian writers in English translation.

      The "Big Book" award is held for the sixth time this year. Last year it was given to Pavel Basinsky for the book "Lev Tolstoy: Begstvo iz Raya" ("Leo Tolstoy: Escape from the Paradise"), Alexander Ilichevsky for the "Pers" ("Persian") and Viktor Pelevin for the "t" novel.  

      Source: Lenta.ru Image: toodoo.ru

      Links: Viktor Pelevin's Books in English On Amazon.com (in English)

      Dmitry Bykov on Amazon.com (in English)

      Vladimir Sorokin on Amazon.com (in English)