Антологія містить «футбольну» прозу одинадцяти сучасних українських письменників, кожен з яких пропонує своє розуміння «гри мільйонів», добираючи свої слова — серйозні й сентиментальні, веселі й абсурдні. Ці розповіді є настільки різноманітними та несподіваними, наскільки різноманітним та несподіваним може бути сам Футбол. Антологія містить фантастичні й реалістичні, трагічні й сатиричні біографічно-публіцистичні та глибоко інтимні, але неодмінно «навколофутбольні» оповідання одинадцяти літературних форвардів України XXI сторіччя. У кожного із цих письменників свій «футбол», свої правила літературної гри — настільки різноманітні й непередбачувані, наскільки різноманітним та непередбачуваним може бути політ м'яча. На полі зустрінуться незмінний капітан поетів і прозаїків-«двотисячників» Сергій Жадан, великий містифікатор Юрій Винничук, універсально обдарований персонаж Фоззі (ТНМК), культовий автор Юрій Андрухович у ролі літописця українського футболу… Не обійшлося в «команді мрії» і без легіонера. А почесна роль судді в цьому товариському матчі призначається читачеві — вболівальнику сучасної української літератури!
Authors
Andriy Kokotukha (ukr. Андрій Кокотюха) - Ukrainian and Russian writer. Among his most famous Ukranian novels are Anomalna zona (Kyiv, 2009; French translation in 2016 under the title Zone d'anomalie), Chervonyi (Kharkiv, 2012) and Sprava otamana Zelenoho (Kharkiv, 2014). Among his most famous Russian novels are Mentovskiy gorod (Kharkiv, 2002), Spasti skifa (Moscow, 2012), and Posledneye sokrovishche imperiyi (Moscow, 2013). Russian-language author page: Андрей Кокотюха English-language author page: Andriy Kokotukha
Max Kidruk (Ukranian: Макс Кідрук; born April 1, 1984 in Volodymyrets, Rivne region, Ukraine) - popular Ukrainian writer and science popularizer, holds a master’s degree in Energy Engineering. Studied at the National University of Water Management and Nature Resources Use (Rivne, Ukraine), and then was getting a postgraduate education at Kyiv Polytechnic University and Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology. He left both graduate schools in 2009, having decided to become a professional writer. While living in Stockholm, he started traveling actively, first around Europe, then further abroad. Currently, he has visited more than 35 countries, including Tanzania, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, China, Chile, Brazil, Angola, Namibia, New Zealand, Indonesia and others. For a while was a travel journalist for a number of Ukrainian magazines. In 2009, was published his first book, a travelogue “Mexican Chronicles. The Story of One Dream” (the second prize of the Ukrainian Literary Award “Coronation of the Word” (2009), the debut of the year from the bookstore chain ‘KS’). Over the next three years, Kidruk published three autobiographical travelogues, “Journey to the Navel of the World” about Easter Island, “Love and Piranhas” about Brazil, and “To Zealand!” on the Egyptian Revolution, Syria and New Zealand. All of them earned reasonable success among the readers. In 2012, Kidruk published the first fiction novel, a sci-fi thriller ”Bot”, dubbed by critics as ‘the first Ukrainian techno-thriller’. Over seven years, “Bot” was republished more than 6 times, the current edition – in November 2019. Over the next few years, Kidruk was slowly moving from writing techno-thrillers (“The Stronghold”, “The Ruthless Skies”) to more serious dramatic and psychological stories. The sci-fi book “The Inner Side of Dreams” (2016) and the social novel “Godlessness” (2018) were shortlisted for the BBC Book of the Year Award. The novel “Godlessness” remained in the TOP-20 of the bookstore chain “Bookstore E” for 13 weeks, 7 of which held the first position. In the spring of 2015, in Poland was published currently the only Kidruk’s non-fiction book, “Ja Ukrainiec” (“I, the Ukrainian”). In the book, the author analyzes relations between Ukraine and Russia from the beginning of the liberation war led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the events of the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014) and Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine. In 2017, Kidruk amazed the literary community by announcing a large-scale presentation tour with the new novel “Don’t Look Back and Stay Quiet”. The tour covered 100 cities of Ukraine, where almost 140 presentations were made. For this novel the number of printed copies by the beginning of 2019 has exceeded 30 thousand. In the fall of 2019, Kidruk’s first augmented reality novel “Until the light fades away” was published. In addition to the interactive cover, the mobile application developed specifically for the book includes supplementary storylines, photos of the places where the events of the novel happen, a full diary of one of the characters, and a chat the reader can use to talk with one of the characters. The first print run (12,000 copies) was sold within the period of a month and a half. In the second week of sales, the book held the top spot of the TOP-20 list of the ‘Bookstore E’ network and at the end of 2019 continues to be in the top.
Yuri Vynnychuk (sometimes spelled as Yuriy Vynnychuk, Yuryy Vynnychuk, Iurii Vynnychuk, Yurii Vynnychuk, Jurij Wynnytschuk, Jurij Wynnyczuk, Jurij Vіnіčuk, Youri Vinitchouk) is a contemporary Ukrainian writer. Ukrainian language profile: Юрій Винничук
Russian-language author page: Андрей Кокотюха Ukrainian-language author page: Андрій Кокотюха Andriy Kokotiukha (b. 1970) is a Ukrainian author, screenwriter and journalist. Having graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, he has authored more than 50 novels, children’s books, crime fiction, documentaries and science fiction books. His novels have been made into films. He is a winner of several prestigious literary awards for many of his works.
