The National Bestseller Literature Prize was established in 2001. Over the years, many prominent Russian writers have become its laureates: Viktor Pelevin, Mikhail Shishkin, Dmitry Bykov, Zakhar Prilepin. In 2012, the award ceremony was held for the twelfth time.
Every year at the beginning of summer in St. Petersburg, the All-Russian Prize for Literature "National Bestseller" or, as it is abbreviated as "National Bestseller", is awarded. It is given for the best novel in Russian, written during the previous calendar year. The motto of the award is the slogan "Wake up famous!", Which reflects the main goal of the "Natsbest" - the search and opening of a wide readership of new talented books.
The selection mechanism for the main bestseller of the year takes place in three stages. Every year the organizing committee compiles lists of well-known Russian publishers, writers and critics, who are nominated for one work worthy in their opinion. All the books they have announced are on the long list.
In 2012, the list of nominees included 52 people, among whom were critics Lev Danilkin and Nikolai Alexandrov, publishers Olga Morozova and Alexander Ivanov, writers Gleb Shulpyakov and Yuri Buida. A total of 42 works were nominated.
Then the members of the Grand Jury choose from a long list of two works they like. Each first place brings the applicant 3 points, the second - 1. Then, based on simple arithmetic calculations, a short list is drawn up, which in turn evaluates the Small Jury and selects the winner.
In 2012, 6 novels reached the final: "The Germans" by Alexander Terekhov, "The Women of Lazarus" by Marina Stepnova, "The Mines of Tsar Solomon" by Vladimir Lorchenkov, "Russian Sadism" by Vladimir Lidsky, "Françoise, or the Path to the Glacier" by Sergei Nosov and "Living "Anna Starobinets.
In the winter garden of the Astoria hotel on June 5, 2012, the National Bestseller award ceremony took place. A small jury chaired by musician Sergei Shnurov named the winner of the novel-phantasmagria about Luzhkov's Moscow "The Germans" by Alexander Terekhov.
The Russian writer A. Terekhov, after graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University in 1991, worked as a correspondent for the Ogonek magazine, then as editor-in-chief of the literary newspaper Nastoyaschie Vremya, since 1999 he has been the general director of the publishing house I Chitayu. Alexander Terekhov is the author of several books, in 2009 he was a finalist for another prestigious literary award - "Big Book" - with the novel "Stone Bridge".
