Interview with Dmitry Bykov

Dmitry Bykov was born in Moscow in 1967, and studied at Moscow State University's Faculty of Journalism. A controversial and outspoken figure, Bykov is a frequent contributor to the Russian media, working with several daily and weekly papers, radio stations and television shows on a variety of topics from politics to literature. His eclectic literary output ranges includes poetry, prose and screenplays, and encompasses a wide range of genres. In 2007, Bykov's acclaimed biography of Boris Pasternak won the prestigious Big Book prize, whose prize is second in value to the Nobel Prize for Literature and of which Bykov wrote: “Boris Leonidovich has completely renovated my dacha”. The first of Bykov's novels in English, Living Souls, is due to be published by Alma in March 2010.

10 Questions

1) What led you into writing?

I really don't know. I understand only that the reasons for this strange choice are mysterious and dramatic. Balanced and self-satisfied people tend to do something else. Maybe I clearly realized from early childhood that I wouldn't do well in any other sphere of activity. Maybe the only reason for writing is a fear of death. Maybe – and this version sounds preferable – I was too fond of reading and understood even before school that writing was the only serious and powerful way to influence things: all other methods are expensive, traumatic and temporary.

2) What was your earliest career aspiration?

Well, speaking frankly – my most honourable honorarium was a regular double portion of food in the Soviet Army, where I served for two years like most Soviet students. That was my pay for the rhymed letters which I had been writing for our regiment's cook who was in love with a romantic schoolgirl. Glad to report that he married her after his service. Speaking seriously, there were no material aspirations – I wanted only fame. Be careful with your prayers – they can be heard.

3) Can you describe your latest book and its inspiration in thirty words?

Even in twenty. It's a novel about the 1920s, about the so-called "Case of the Leningrad Freemasons" – their trial, banishment and further adventures. Some more words in addition: being based on real facts, this novel – called The Pupil of the Magician – is a strange mixture of mystic, picaresque and satiric prose, something between The Master and Margarita and The Twelve Chairs, but more sentimental and surely much worse. It's nearly finished and will be printed in Russia this summer I hope.

4) Do you have any plans for your next book?

Sure, but very indistinct ones. At the same time I'm writing a book of essays dedicated to the greatest unfinished novels (beginning, as you can guess, with The Mystery of Edwin Drood), and a political and criminal novel about modern Russia called The Assassins – about two real and scandalous murders and the Russian extremist underground.

5) What has been the most exciting moment in your career?

My marriage I guess. My future wife had serious doubts about my morality, but my poems convinced her.

6) What are you reading right now?

Leo Anninsky's selected articles in two volumes – an anthology by the best contemporary Russian critic – and a biography of H.G. Wells by my friend Maxim Chertanov.

7) If you could have dinner with any three people, past or present, who would they be?

Oh. Maybe G.K. Chesterton, Charles de Coster and – oh Lord! – Saint Augustin. But how to convince them to have dinner with a naughty person like me, and what to cook?!

8) Which period in history would you most like to have lived through?

Definitely the Dutch revolution, described in the wonderful Ulenspiegel; Caesarian Rome (II-I century B.C.); the Russian Revolution, preferably in Petersburg; maybe the Soviet sixties... But modern times will do, too.

9) If your house was on fire, which three books would you save from the flames?

I'm afraid it will be my bankbook and one book of verse (that's a secret!) where cash is hidden. I can concentrate on practical tasks being sure that my wife will save her old Bible.

10) What do you do to relax?

Segway, only segway! That's one of the three greatest inventions in human history. The other two are nasal drops and sausages.