Maxim Osipov Interviewed by Lucian Hudson

Prize-winning Russian writer Maxim Osipov, who has been compared to Chekov, talks about his collection of short stories and essays, Kilometer 101.

The stories include Pieces on a Plane, about a run-in on a plane between two chess opponents one of whom then reflects on his father’s behaviour during the Soviet period, and Cape Cod, about a couple who move to New York where the husband makes a lot of money in banking. The essays include pieces about Osipov’s time at a regional hospital tainted by compromises, corruption and distrust.

‘Now is a difficult time to empathise with Russians – which is why we need Maxim Osipov.  We need him to bring alive to us what it means to live in Putin’s Russia – how the system finds ways to crush all but a very few.’  The Spectator

Osipov is a writer and a cardiologist. He was a research fellow in the United Sates in the early 1990s before returning to Moscow where he practised medicine, founded a publishing house and established a charitable foundation to secure the future of his hospital. He has won literary prizes for his fiction, and his plays have been staged all over Russia. He moved to Germany in February 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here he talks to Professor Lucian Hudson, director of advancement, marketing and communications at Durham University and the festival’s strategic advisor.