Tomsk Author Publishes Book on Destructive Love and Stalking
The author during the book presentation.
In 2025, Tomsk writer Boris Peigin managed to publish his novel «Next» with Eksmo, Russia«s largest publishing house. The book tells the story of a sick and destructive love and stalking, set in a fictional city with features of Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and a number of other cities. Journalist NGS70.RU spoke with the author about working on the book and how writers from the regions can break into the literary scene.
The novel «Next» was published with a print run of 3,000 copies.
Boris Peigin is 37 years old. He was born in the closed city of Seversk in Tomsk Oblast, and then moved to Tomsk. He works as a lawyer, and in his free time, he writes prose and poetry. He started writing in his teens — «mostly about love and life.» His poems and stories have been published in various literary journals.
Wrote the Novel for Six Years
The author worked on his project for six years with long breaks. The work progressed unevenly: some episodes came easily to him, while others he rewrote several times, as they did not satisfy him at all, says Boris.
“I couldn«t properly formulate the thought — either it was inaccurate, or I expressed it poorly. I tried to impose some discipline on myself. I read somewhere long ago that to successfully write a large prose work, you need to write 2,000 characters a day. Such »advice for a young housewife.« For some time, I tried. I could write for 20 days, then not write for 20 days, then write again for 20 days, then abandon it for a year. So. That happened. But if I sat down to work, I tried to produce those two thousand characters. And sometimes it took many hours.”
“Love-Hate That Drives You Crazy”
The setting of the novel is a fictional city that combines features of Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and a whole series of other cities. The author did this so that the story could not be classified as capital or regional literature. Thus, in the author«s opinion, the text becomes closer to the reader, wherever they may be. The events take place in the 1990s.
The main character of the book is Philip Dmitrievsky — a boy from a good, professorial family, whose life is planned out in advance. He is an intelligent and emotionally unstable hero who does not live up to the expectations of his loved ones and has suffered from a lack of love and acceptance since childhood.
“He falls in love with his classmate Larisa. She represents an ideal: very smart and successful in terms of social interaction. She studies better and achieves more. And the main character always comes second in her shadow. On one hand, this admires him, and on the other hand, it forms envy and hate. It turns into a strange love-hate that drives you crazy,” says Boris Peigin.
The hero cannot overcome the strong feeling, and it grows into destructive behavior: Philip begins to stalk his beloved, frightening her. Due to such behavior, the main character becomes an outcast in his own school, and then he is forced to leave it. How this story develops further — the author remains silent to avoid spoilers.
The theme of stalking is very relevant for Russia, but at the same time, it is practically not reflected in literature, believes Boris.
“In literature, topics that concern writers are discussed. Publishers have their pool of authors, authors have their pool of topics they work with. And, perhaps, it so happened, and, I think, most likely, it did happen, that the topic of stalking simply did not fall into one of these pools. There are many acute social issues in our society. And it«s not only stalking, but also domestic violence, there are plenty of topics.”
How Did He Manage to Break into a Major Publishing House?
In 2021, Boris became a resident of the famous House of Creativity in Peredelkino, a cultural center for writers. This is a cultural center where writers, poets, and translators live and work. In addition, author meetings, lectures, exhibitions, book clubs, and other events for the general public are held here.
At one of the meetings, Boris met a literary agent from the publishing house Eksmo. She read excerpts from the novel, and they interested her. As soon as the text was completely ready, it was sent for editing.
“A huge number of texts pass through Eksmo. I think that the capabilities of even such a publishing house are much less than the number of good texts that pass through it. Generally, there are many more talented writers than is commonly believed. And here, fame and luck decide. In my case — luck was on my side. The text found the agent it was supposed to find, and the editor it was supposed to find.”
The book was published in November 2025 with a print run of 3,000 copies. The publishing house organized presentations for Boris in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The writer plans to hold several more presentations in Siberian cities, including Tomsk.
How Can an Author Make Themselves Known?
Boris Peigin explains that there are two fundamentally different paths for modern authors: trying to create genre (science fiction, fantasy, romance novels, etc.) or non-genre prose. To understand what texts are in demand in genre literature, it is worth following competitions and announcements from publishers: they often indicate what texts are needed. If an author has suitable material, it should be sent to the publisher«s email.
In the case of non-genre prose, the speaker advised studying the lists of major literary awards («Yasnaya Polyana,» «Big Book,» «Book of the Year»). It is necessary to analyze the themes of the books and the features of language and style.
According to Boris Peigin, such analysis allows one to form an idea of the current «field of meanings» in literature. The author should try to find a niche in this field that is not yet occupied — this does not guarantee publication, but increases the chances of «hitting a nerve» and interesting publishers.
