The Vital Needs of the Dead

Igor Sakhnovsky has been published in a number of leading literary journals, both in and outside of his native Russia. His novel The Vital Needs Of The Dead was published in 1999 in the journal Novy Mir and was subsequently translated into English, German and French.Sakhnovsky was born in 1958 in the town of Orsk, to the south of the Ural mountains which traditionally divide the European and Asian parts of Russia. He studied philology at the Ural State University and went on to serve as scientific and chief editor at the Academy of Sciences, as well as directing the journal Book Club. In 2002 Sakhnovsky was awarded a Fellowship by the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers (UK). Since then he has been a finalist for both the National Bestseller Prize (2006) and the Russian Booker Prize (2007), among numerous other awards. In 2008 his novel The Man Who Knew Everything was turned into a screenplay, directed by V. Mirzoyev.

What needs might the dead have? Our loved ones stay with us after they've gone. Love, death and memory breathe in unison in the first novel by Igor Sakhnovsky. A boy is growing up in a small Soviet town beyond the Urals. There is a person in his life whose unobtrusive devotion will stay with him and see him through all hardships.This semi-biographical story of "sentimental education" of a young man in a Russian province chronicles his life from childhood to university years, with his first love, to an older woman, his attempt to break out of the provincial morass and the choices he has to make.The book leaves the reader sensing that there is "nothing more terrifying, beautiful and fantastical than the so-called real life." The book was highly acclaimed in Russia and firmly established Igor Sakhnovsky as one of the most interesting Russian writers of today. The novel gained Sakhnovsky the prestigious Hawthornden Fellowship (other winners have included Ian Rankin, Alasdair Gray and Hilary Spurling, among others).