A word about sons

Abstract

The paper reviews two contemporary novels published in 2026: S. Shargunov’s Son of a Priest [Popovich] and B. Peygin’s Next One [Sleduyushchy]. Stylistically different, both books, however, deal with a coming-of-age story — a popular theme these days. Both authors engage in experimentation with traditional canons as well as the now widespread cliché of trauma fiction. In Shargunov’s book, for example, we see the classical story of a child’s soul growing to maturity transformed into an exciting psychological quest that allows for an insight into the events from a teenager’s viewpoint, with his yearning for freedom, as well as through the eyes of a more mature protagonist, who has realized that freedom has to be earned. Peygin, for his part, decides on linguistic and stylistic experiments that result in a successful depiction of a teenager’s warped, intense, and hyper-stressed conscience, inhabited by figures of authority from school and book characters alike. Shargunov’s and Peygin’s novels demonstrate the appropriation of the principles of young adult fiction by ‘grown-up’ literature, exemplified by the rising popularity of a teenage protagonist.