On November, 5—9 2008,

the International Association “Live classics”

with support of Michael Prohorov’s fund

conducted a number of events with participation of Ludmila Petrushevskaya in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

On November, 6 at 5 p.m. presentation of L.Petrushevskaya’s books and animated cartoons based on the author’s literary pieces took place on the main stage of KRASNOYARSK BOOK FAIR-club.

Ludmila Petrushevskaya presented four recent books: “Black butterfly”, “Boundary fairy-tales about kittens” (issued by “Amfora” publishing house), “Princess book” and “Adventures of a small pig Peter” (issued by “Rosman” publishing house). “Black butterfly” is a rare case of connection of mystic novels, stories, plays, dialogues and modern city fairy-tales for adults. This collection of stories is made according to the simple principle: things change each other as if they are included in the author’s notebooks. These are not always tragic stories traditional for the author. For instance, there is a play devoted to the first marital hour of a woman and a strange male creature who admits that he is an oak and reproduces by breath. And all the fairy-tales have the happy end.

The book “Boundary fairy-tales about kittens” consists of a collection of totally new genres – these are absurd fairy-tales allegedly about kittens, in fact, about Chapaev, Anna Karenina, Ivan Turgenev and even Lenin. The next section of the book comprises funny fairy-tales-riddles, it is a genre which hasn’t existed before. This extraordinary book finishes with comic verses as well as parody poems in rap style.

The second part of presentation referred to the children’s publishing house “Rosman” which published “Princess book” and “Adventures of a small pig Peter”.

Both books designed for children have a long and interesting history. Ludmila Petrushevskaya has always been referred to only as an adult writer though she has written more than 300 fairy-tales. Until recently they were printed without pictures and belonged to the section “prose”. However, they are read by all the family. “Rosman” editors decided to violate this tradition and return the books to the original addressees, the children.

“Princess book” is decorated with humorous (the painter – E.Zelenina) and touching illustrations: princesses, queens are depicted as totally comic characters. Actually, it corresponds to the style of fairy-tales which includes a lot of funny moments.

The abstract says that the fairy-tales are to be read aloud after lunch.

To support this recommendation the puplishing house made a special present for the fair – it issued a small additional CD where Ludmila Petrushevskaya reads the fairy-tale about a silly princess which wasn’t included in the collection.

As for fairy-tales about a small pig Peter (which were written for the toddlers), they have become the Internet phenomenon. 6 years have passed since the first issue of the books. That time several sites devoted to a small pig Peter emerged in the Russian-speaking web. For the recent years people have written, argued, admired, scorned the author and painter, created the continuation of fairy-tales and painted parody variants of the books. They have counted the number of words in the tale (79). There is a note that a man wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of a small pig Peter was wandering in London. Excursions to kindergartens were organized, they were made to see how toddlers would react on the story read aloud (children started to play the game of a small pig Peter). A research about the phenomenal Internet game was performed in Saratov University.

One should mention that Internet users demand animated cartoons based on the books. Finally, the animated cartoon about the famous small pig Peter was presented. Moreover, the viewers watched 2 CDs with slide-shows attached to “Princess book” and “Boundary fairy-tales about kittens” also including elements of animated cartoons. On the same day, November, 6 Ludmila Petrushevskaya visited the play “Moscow choir” and made an applause bow together with actors.

On November, 7 at 5.p.m. Ludmila Petrushevskaya met young readers and performed the action named “Fairy-tales for children”.

Ludmila Petrushevskaya came to children with her books, fairy-tales, animated cartoons as well as self-made cardboard theatre which demonstrated the play “How the letter A became a person” and “Pus’ki byatye”. This theatre was constructed especially for the book festival in the country house, it took a month to make the theatre and dolls of cardboard boxes, building paints and clothespegs that was a kind of lesson for parents how to make something of materials at hand. Moreover, Ludmila Petrushevskaya showed animated cartoons based on her scripts: “Treatment of Vasily”, “Hare’s tale”, “A cat who can sing” and “Lyamzi-Tyri-Bondi, the angry wizard” as well as the animated cartoon about a small pig Peter. Then Ludmila Petrushevskaya offered the children to paint a small pig Peter and made an exhibition of children’s works.

On the same day at 6 p.m. there was a show of contest animated works made by children from Krasnoyarsk studios based on motives from “Linguistic fairy-tales” of Ludmila Petrushevskaya at the playground.

To be the contest participant one should make a small 5-minute-long animated cartoon based on one of fairy-tales of Ludmila Petrushevskaya. It was Ludmila Petrushevskaya who selected the winner. That time it was Anastasia Moskaleva with the animated cartoon “Antibutyavka”. The animated cartoon was shown in St.Petersburg during Petrushevsky festival which took place from February,18 till March,8 2009.

On November, 8 at 7 p.m. the main stage of KRASNOYARSK BOOK FAIR-club hosted Ludmila Petrushevskaya’s literary and musical evening “One author’s cabaret”.

Ludmila Petrushevskaya performed the immortal hits of the XX century: “Lili Marlen”, “Fallen leaves”, “Life in pink light”, foxtrot “An old lady slowly crossed the road” from Chicago musical of 1930s “Chattanugu”, “Murka” and the Polish tango “The last Sunday”. These songs were translated by Ludmila Petrushevskaya herself.

A series of events with participation of Ludmila Petrushevskaya in Krasnoyarsk Book Fair became an integral part of the Anniversary Year of Ludmila Petrushevskaya.

The fair gave a strong impetus for preparation of Ludmila Petrushevskaya’s anniversary festival which took place from February,18 till March,8 2009 in St. Petersburg. Krasnoyarsk Book Fair allowed to prepare animated cartoons based on the writer’s fairy-tales and the children’s movable game “We are together with a small pig Peter”.