1st Edition

Translating Novels from Putin's Russia

By Sarah Gear Copyright 2026
254 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the impact of political bias on the translation of contemporary Russian fiction into English and its reception in the UK and US between 2008 and 2022. It also surveys the post-Ukraine invasion literary landscape and provides an overview of post-2022 tamizdat literary networks which publish Russophone literature outside of Russia and free of censorship. By analysing novels... Read more

Introduction  1. Liberal Authors: Sorokin, Ulitskaya, and Shishkin  2. Nationalist Authors: Prilepin, Elizarov, and Senchin  Part 1: The Market  3. The Russian-English Literary Translation Market  4. Translation Networks and Gatekeepers  5. Funding and Soft Power  Part 2: Commissioning  6. Commissioning Liberal Authors  7. Commissioning Nationalist Authors  Part 3: Translation  8. Translation, Editing, and Political Bias  9. When and How to Translate  10. Ethics and Literary Translation  Part 4: Marketing and Reception  11. Paratexts  12. Extratexts and Reception  Part 5: Conclusion – Literary Translation After 2022  13. Russian Literature and War  14. A Conclusion

Biography

Sarah Gear received her PhD from the University of Exeter, UK. She is a Russian and Translation Studies scholar, specializing in contemporary Russian literature and teaches Russian at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK.