ELKOST International literary agency - National Prize in China 2006

Featured titles

Nikolai Leskov: The Overlooked Genius, a biography by Maya Kuzherskaya (2021)

Rights sold: Russia - Molodaya Gvardiya

Winner of the 2021 Big Book Award (second prize)

Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held in high esteem by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others, Leskov is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society using mostly short literary forms. His major works include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865) (which was later made into an opera by Shostakovich), The Cathedral Clergy (1872), The Enchanted Wanderer (1873), and The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea (1881).

Perennially falling into and out of fashion, Leskov is a stunningly versatile writer and a very un-Russian Russian great. -- Chris Power, The Guardian

THE KINGDOM OF AGAMEMNON, a novel by Vladimir Sharov

Rights sold: Bulgaria - SONM, Russia - AST, World English - NYRB

The novel’s title refers to the Greek tragedy of Agamemnon who, after his return from Troy, was killed by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. The King of Agamemnon follows Nikolai Zhestovsky, a researcher and philosopher, whose modern life in the twentieth century, including current-day Russia, begins to mimic Agamemnon’s ancient tragedy. Critics praised Sharov’s last work for its profound philosophical reflections and unexpected historical parallels.
The novel sold 10,000 copies in Russia.