Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2008-11-26

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0307491013

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Fans of Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, the first book in Akunin’s Pelagia trilogy, will be instantly mesmerized–and frightened–by this latest foray into Zavolzhsk’ s spiritual underworld. In the middle of the night, a disheveled and badly frightened monk arrives at the doorstep of Bishop Mitrofanii of Zavolzhsk, crying: “Something’s wrong at the Hermitage!” The Hermitage is the centuries-old island monastery of New Ararat, known for its tradition of severely penitent monks, isolated environs, and a mental institution founded by a millionaire in self-imposed exile. Hearing the monk’s eerie message, Mitrofanii’s befuddled but sharp-witted ward Sister Pelagia begs to visit New Ararat and uncover the mystery. Traditions prevail–no women are allowed–and the bishop sends other wards to test their fates against the Black Monk that haunts the once serene locale. But as the Black Monk claims more victims–including Mitrofanii’s envoys–Pelagia goes undercover to see exactly what person, or what spirit, is at the bottom of it all. Praise for Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk “For all his status as a globe-circling bestseller, Akunin keeps faith in his sleekly engineered and allusive whodunnits with the classical virtues of Russian prose. . . . That polish lends his books a peculiar charm.”–The Independent (London) “Readers can hear echoes of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekov in whodunits that, because of their literary overtones, can be guiltlessly consumed as entertainment.”—Los Angeles Times

Pelagia & the Black Monk
Pelagia & the Black Monk

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13:

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Sister Pelagia, bespectacled, freckled, woefully clumsy and possessed of a not very nunnish aptitude for solving crimes, returns in a tale of monastic intrigue, murder and adventure.

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel
Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2009-08-11

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0812975154

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The ship carrying the devout to Jerusalem has run into rough waters. Onboard is Manuila, controversial leader of the “Foundlings,” a sect that worships him as the Messiah. But soon the polarizing leader is no longer a passenger or a prophet but a corpse, beaten to death by someone almost supernaturally strong. But not everything is as it seems, and someone else sailing has become enmeshed in the mystery: the seemingly slow but actually astute sleuth Sister Pelagia. Her investigation of the crime will take her deep into the most dangerous areas of the Middle East and Russia, running from one-eyed criminals and after such unlikely animals as a red cockerel that may be more than a red herring. To her shock, she will emerge with not just the culprit in a murder case but a clue to the earth’s greatest secret. Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel features its beloved heroine’s most exciting and explosive inquiry yet, one that just might shake the foundations of her faith.

The Akunin Project
The Akunin Project

Author: Elena V. Baraban

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2021-02-01

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1487537891

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The Akunin Project is the first book to study the fiction and popular history of Grigorii Chkhartishvili, one of the most successful writers in post-Soviet Russia. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Chkhartishvili published over sixty books under the pen names Anatolii Brusnikin, Anna Borisova, Akunin-Chkhartishvili, and, most commonly, Boris Akunin. His series featuring the tsarist secret policeman Erast Fandorin has sold over 15 million books in Russia alone, making Akunin one of the bestselling authors of the post-Soviet era. Combining intertextuality, allusions, pastiche, and other markers of postmodern playfulness, many of Akunin’s works have been translated into English and have also been adapted for film and television. Akunin’s public profile has been further enhanced by his active involvement in mass political protests against Vladimir Putin. Despite Akunin’s international reputation as a celebrated writer, there is very little critical work on his literary output and his mysterious persona. Bringing together scholars of literature, history, and culture, The Akunin Project fills this gap by exploring the author’s bestselling adventure novels and recent histories of the Russian state. The book includes translations of five short works previously unavailable in English as well as an interview with the author.

Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2007-01-30

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0812975138

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“Pelagia’s family likeness to Father Brown and Miss Marple is marked, and reading about her supplies a similarly decorous pleasure.” –The Literary Review In a remote Russian province in the late nineteenth century, Bishop Mitrofanii must deal with a family crisis. After learning that one of his great aunt’s beloved and rare white bulldogs has been poisoned, the Orthodox bishop knows there is only one detective clever enough to investigate the murder: Sister Pelagia. The bespectacled, freckled Pelagia is lively, curious, extraordinarily clumsy, and persistent. At the estate in question, she finds a whole host of suspects, any one of whom might have benefited if the old lady (who changes her will at whim) had expired of grief at the pooch’s demise. There’s Pyotr, the matron’s grandson, a nihilist with a grudge who has fallen for the maid; Stepan, the penniless caretaker, who has sacrificed his youth to the care of the estate; Miss Wrigley, a mysterious Englishwoman who has recently been named sole heiress to the fortune; Poggio, an opportunistic and freeloading “artistic” photographer; and, most intriguingly, Naina, the old lady’s granddaughter, a girl so beautiful she could drive any man to do almost anything. As Pelagia bumbles and intuits her way to the heart of a mystery among people with faith only in greed and desire, she must bear in mind the words of Saint Paul: “Beware of dogs–and beware of evil-doers.” “Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have praised [Akunin’s] clever plots, vivid characters and wit.” –Baltimore Sun “Akunin’s wonderful novels are always intricately webbed and plotted.” –The Providence Journal

Odoevsky's four pathways into modern fiction
Odoevsky's four pathways into modern fiction

Author: Neil Cornwell

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2013-07-19

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1847797695

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This book takes four stories by the Russian Romantic author Vladimir Odoevsky to illustrate ‘pathways’, developed further by subsequent writers, into modern fiction. Featured here are: the artistic (musical story), the rise of science fiction, psychic aspects of the detective story, and of confession in the novel. The four chapters also examine the development of the featured categories by a wide range of subsequent writers in fiction ranging from the Romantic period up to the present century. The study works backwards from Odoevsky’s stories, noting respective previous examples or traditions, before proceeding to follow the ‘pathways’ observed into later Russian, English and comparative fiction. Whilst appealing to specialists in Russian and comparative literature, these chapters are accessible to a student readership taking courses involving the main areas featured – including the arts in literature, fictional artistic biography, interplanetary flight and civilisations, detective fiction, and novelistic confession.

Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide
Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide

Author: Nick Rennison

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1408103540

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Deciding what to read next when you've just finished an unputdownable novel can be a daunting task. The Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide features hundreds of authors and thousands of titles, with navigation features to lead you on a rich journey through some the best literature to grace our shelves. This greatly expanded edition includes the latest contemporary authors and landmark novels, an expanded non-fiction section, a timeline setting historical events against literary milestones, prize-winner and book club lists. An accessible and easy-to-read guide that no serious book lover should be without. "The essential guide to the wild uncharted world of contemporary and 20th century writing." Robert McCrum, The Observer

She Lover of Death
She Lover of Death

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0802148158

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The Russian detective infiltrates a dangerous circle of suicidal poets in this “droll, incisive, and fiendishly clever” series set in nineteenth-century Moscow (The Seattle Times). Naive young Masha Mironova arrives in Moscow at the turn of the century determined to shed her provincial Siberian upbringing. Reinventing herself as the reckless and daring Columbine, she soon falls in with a subversive group of poets known as the Lovers of Death. At the home of their leader, the Doge, these seductive bohemians conduct nightly séances to determine who shall be Death’s next lover. Once named at a séance, the chosen member must await three signs from Death before taking his or her own life. The resulting string of suicides have drawn media attention and sparked widespread hysteria in Moscow. As the group’s numbers dwindle, the dashing investigator Erast Fandorin goes undercover to join their ranks. But will the gentleman-detective be able to stop Columbine from taking fatal action when she receives her three unmistakable signs? “A devastatingly attractive combination of Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey and James Bond.” —The Guardian

The Coronation
The Coronation

Author: Boris Akunin

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2019-02-05

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0802146155

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“Fandorin . . . dominates this, the seventh of his adventures to be published in the States, as he always does—with Sherlockian elan” (The Washington Post). Boris Akunin has been hailed as Russia’s answer to both Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his beloved Fandorin mystery series. In The Coronation, he delivers a fantastically entertaining and deftly plotted take on the hostage novel, not to be missed. After five years spent abroad building up a business as something of a private investigator, the handsome, stuttering Fandorin is back in Moscow—and in for a case that entangles him with the highest echelons of Romanov royalty. Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow with three of his children for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. During an afternoon stroll in the park, Georgii’s daughter Xenia is dragged away by bandits, only to be rescued by an elegant gentleman and his Japanese sidekick. The passing heroes introduce themselves as Erast Petrovich Fandorin and Masa, but panic ensues when the party realizes that four-year-old Mikhail has been snatched in the confusion. A ransom letter arrives from an international criminal demanding the handover of the Count Orlov, an enormous diamond on the royal scepter which is due to play a part in the coronation. Can the gentleman-detective find Mikhail in time? “Akunin keeps the action fast-paced, and the logical twists head-spinning, without sacrificing humor or depth of characterization.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Just when you think you know what’s coming next, Akunin, the most audacious author of historical mysteries in the business, shows that he’s way ahead of you . . . a treat.” —Kirkus Reviews