Elena Ouens

Elena Graneva is a contemporary writer. Elena Graneva (a pseudonym).

She was born in Vladivostok into a family of industrial fishermen. In 1993, she enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences and, after graduating, worked in her field in Saint Petersburg.

In 2016, due to family circumstances, she emigrated to the United Kingdom. Nostalgia for her homeland became a powerful creative impulse that prompted Graneva to create her debut novel, The Bitter Taste of Salt, in two parts (the first part was published by EKSMO). While working on this large-scale work, based on in-depth historical research and numerous interviews with representatives of the Soviet postwar generation, the author studied historical materials, sent inquiries to archives of government institutions, created thematic communities on social media to communicate with representatives of the postwar generation, and recorded the dialect of the Vologda region, compiling a proprietary glossary verified with native speakers.

The novel became Elena Graneva’s first major work and has already attracted readers’ attention with its high level of authenticity, emotional depth, and careful treatment of historical truth.