Last year, starting in March, I read nothing but Icelandic novels for a month or so. I found the experience very interesting, getting different perspectives of the same country in a short space of time, so I decided to repeat the exercise with another country. I did think about New Zealand, as I have recently returned from New Zealand, and part of my motivation for doing Iceland last year was a visit to Iceland. However, as you will see from the title, I have chosen to do Russia, not least because I have far too many Russian books I have not read. It is becoming quite apparent that the Russian novel is very much back in business and that there are some first-class novels being published. If you read Lisa Hayden’s blog, as you certainly should, you will realise how much there is and, sadly, how much is not being made available in English. A few of the books I shall read have been translated into other languages. For example, French publisher Verdier has published some interesting ones, some of which I shall be reading and reviewing. One thing I did notice that is different from last year is that the Icelandic novels were, on the whole relatively short, while, at least the ones I have selected, Russian novels seem generally to be quite long. Sadly, though I took two years of Russian in school, I have only read one novel in Russian (see photo, top left) and I do not feel that I could struggle through a modern one. And maybe the experience will make me go back to the great nineteenth century Russian novels, all of which I read but far too long ago.