The Eksmo publishing house published a book by Irina Bogatyryova "Vedyan". About how the new novel was written and the coincidences associated with it, the author told the portal "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature".

- This novel was written a few years ago, but it so happened that it comes out later than the more recent text, Sogry. Sometimes it happens. Despite the fact that these texts are very different both stylistically and thematically, for me there is a lot in common between them: they are both mixed with folklore leaven. However, if "Sogra" is my tribute to the experience of a field folklorist, then "Vediana" was written even before the appearance of such, rather, in anticipation of it. It is worth saying that my understanding of the issue has changed a lot during this time, and the folklore in Vedyan is not the one with which I am familiar now, but stage, emasculated, the kind that we began to replace tradition in Soviet times and that can be heard as with stage, and from the stage of every supernumerary House of Culture, - says Irina Bogatyreva.

The novel tells about such a House of Culture in a small town on the Volga.

- The town is inhabited by a local people who have long assimilated with the Russians so much that their native language has already been lost, and traditions have degenerated into choruses performed by old women from the "folk" choirs. Unfortunately, this is a typical situation, and yet, in order to avoid analogies, I had to “invent” this nationality, come up with my own language, my own traditions for it, although the roots of different Volga nationalities are recognized in them, the author continues. - Nevertheless, this is not only a problem of the republics, the situation is the same in most Russian cities and towns. The surrogate has long been perceived as a real "folk culture", because there are practically no people left who would have found a different existence of the tradition.

And here is the first fantastic assumption that I made in the novel: the main character is one of those who found and knows what real traditional culture is. He remembers her, he yearns for her, he is sickened by what he hears from the stage of the Palace of Culture, where he works as a sound engineer. But at the same time, he perfectly understands that he cannot change anything. He is deeply alone in this feeling of his, he has other “settings”, so it is not surprising that the character of the myths he knows, the river girl Vedana, comes to him, and changes life in the most radical way.

The author notes that for her this text is not about folklore, it is about understanding the other, beloved or alien; understanding oneself; culture in which he grew up and in which he has to live, as well as understanding nature, man's relationship with it, the possibility and impossibility of harmonious coexistence.

- Vedana is her personification: she is both the spirit of the river and at the same time a living girl, the beloved of the protagonist. But her life directly depends on the river and the forest around, and the hero understands that it is also not in his power to protect her, like nature from the onset of civilization, the writer adds.

Amusing coincidences that occurred in the life of the author are connected with the book.

- The fact is that the main character has a prototype, my friend from the same small town, from the same recreation center. He is a very talented storyteller, and I relied on his stories about his city and work in the Palace of Culture, but I had a chance to visit there only two years after the end of the text. So, having arrived there, I caught myself feeling that I was in my own novel, so everything coincided, to the smallest detail! This, of course, is a very strong impression for the author.

The book is already available on LitRes, later the novel will be released in print.

Writer Irina Bogatyreva was born in Kazan, grew up in Ulyanovsk, and now lives in Moscow. She graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute and a master's degree at the Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore of the Russian State Humanitarian University. Author of 7 books of prose, laureate of the Ilya Prize, the Oktyabr magazine prize, the Belkin Prize, the Goncharov Prize, the Krapivin Prize, the Mikhalkov Prize, the Student Booker Prize, and the Kniguru contest.

Recall that recently the novel by Irina Bogatyryova "Sogra" was published in the Novy Mir magazine, about which the author told our portal. The magazine has already opened access to the first part of the novel online.