Living in Saint Petersburg: From Palace Square to Sadovaya, from Gangutskaya to Shpalernaya

- A collection of stories and essays about Saint Petersburg.

- The book continues a series in which the bestseller “Moscow: a Place to Meet” was released.

- 35 authors under one cover: Tatyana Tolstaya, Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Mikhail Shemyakin, Andrey Bitov, Dmitry Bykov, Boris Grebenshchikov, Andrey Astvatsaturov, Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Pavel Krusanov, Elena Kolina, Tatyana Moskvina, and many others.

- One of the most anticipated books of 2017, according to Forbes.

“Living in St. Petersburg” isn’t like the Moscow we were told about in the bestseller “Moscow: a Place to Meet.” To say nothing of it—the mentality is different, the Petersburg text is different. Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Andrey Astvatsaturov, Boris Grebenshchikov, Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Andrey Bitov, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Elena Kolina, Mikhail Shemyakin, Tatyana Moskvina, Valery Popov, “mitёk” Viktor Tikhomirov, Alexander Gorodnitsky, and many other “key figures” of the Neva city write about Peterburg routes and minibuses, courtyard wells and Rastrelli palaces, Vasilievsky Island, Moskovsky Prospekt, and the Rzhevka platform, the Vvedensky Canal that disappeared into oblivion, and “the yellow steam of Petersburg winter”…

The book is illustrated with watercolors by Liza Stormit and drawings by Viktor Tikhomirov; on the cover there is an etching by Mikhail Shemyakin.

Reviews: “This collection is the result of a literary standoff between two capitals.” (Natalya Lomyakina, Forbes)

“Texts that make up the book draw St. Petersburg not as tourist-gallivanting and ceremonial, but as everyday, gray, routine, a bit poor—unexpectedly cozy—about the way Petersburgers themselves probably see it.” (Galina Yuzefovich, Meduza)

Quotes:

“Our apartment was two-sided: the windows of the big room looked out onto the bridge over the Zhdanovka and the Petrovskiy stadium; the windows of the bedroom and kitchen—onto Offitserky Lane. By that lane, I repeat, servicemen marched to the stadium in their unhurried, unpretentious movement. Hearing the drumbeat in the lane, I would walk up to the bedroom window and watch them approach. When the first ranks disappeared under the arch, I would move to the opposite window. I enjoyed how, ignoring the pendulum law, they kept stamping their steps on the bridge with devotion. And nothing happened to the bridge—in spite of the school physics textbook.” — Yevgeny Vodolazkin

“It wasn’t right away that we began to value what is right next to us. Our home stands six hundred meters from the Hermitage, past which I walked to school for ten years and, for the most part, didn’t notice it. Only after becoming an adult did I begin to appreciate it, look closer, and enjoy it.” — Elizaveta Boyarskaya

“I was then—when I walked along the embankment from Derzhavin’s dacha… usually. And it became unusual. Because I saw the confluence of the Kryukov Canal and the Fontanka, and a little farther along the Kryukov, I saw the bell tower of the Nikolsky Cathedral, built by Savva Chevakinsky. It was blue, thin, elegant. Somehow it was like a musketeer’s. It looked like a salute of a sword to the sky—that’s what it was like.” — Nikita Eliseev

Compiled by: Nataliya Sokolovskaya, Elena Shubina

“Living in St. Petersburg” is a unique new collection from the “Elena Shubina Editorial Office,” continuing the series opened by the book “Moscow: a Place to Meet.” Thirty-five well-known residents of the Neva city write about their favorite places: Yevgeny Vodolazkin’s Zhdanovskaya Embankment, Tatyana Moskvina’s and Alexander Gorodnitsky’s Vasilievsky Island, Valery Popov’s Saperny Lane, Alexander Kushner’s Tauride Garden, Mikhail Piotrovsky’s Hermitage, Mikhail Shemyakin’s Vvedensky Canal, and Elizaveta Boyarskaya’s Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street—plus Boris Grebenshchikov’s “sands of Petersburg” and Tatyana Tolstaya’s “foreign dreams.” The book is illustrated with Viktor Tikhomirov’s drawings and watercolors by Liza Stormit; on the cover there is an etching by Mikhail Shemyakin.