Vadim Levental: 'A novel must be more than just the story of some made-up life'

Masha Regina’s author explains how he expects his debut novel to annoy readers, but traditional make-believe no longer works in an era saturated with fact

“If you’re doing something really new, really out of the ordinary,” Vadim Levental says, “then that automatically means you’re really fucking everybody off.”

Levental may have found himself on the shortlist for Russia’s Big Book prize with his first novel, Masha Regina, but he’s not expecting to win a popularity competition any time soon.

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