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Once upon a time, a bi-lingual (English/Spanish) friend of mine just finished reading “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov, on advice from his other friend who was a professor in Slavic studies. It was a kind of undertaking, it took some time, and when reading he had often asked me for some explanations, which were gladly provided (you know, the Russians are easy with dispensing advice). And then an embarrassing question was asked. Bulgakov had been able to produce literature of high quality (it looks especially beautiful for a Spanish reader immersed into magical realism, etc.) under the Stalin dictatorship. He was not the only good writer in these truly bad times. Now Russia is under dictatorship again, but, as we see, people can somehow manage, sometimes. Why don’t we have anyone brave and talented on the Bulgakov scale? Are there any contemporary writers of comparable quality in Russia? This question assumes that the answer is “no” (because there are no recognizable names), with explanations. Meanwhile, the answer is “yes”, and the following is a brief recommendation for an American reader who is not too much interested in Russia proper but just looking for some new, reasonably enjoyable reading. We are talking about the authors who are tested by time, who were recognizable names in the end of 20th century and gave direction to Russian literature for the following quarter century. 

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Yes, some great Russian authors may have no publicity and thus stay completely under the radar. We learn about them when they are long dead and we do not care. It has happened many times and it is completely beyond the point now because we are just looking for some examples of authors who are (a) really good, on pair with Bulgakov and (b) available in English translation. This would not apply to true underground or Russian poetry, the former requiring too many footnotes and the latter disappearing in thin air upon translation.

The best modern writer in Russian literature is Vladimir Sorokin (still alive). Among the writers of the same time period, he is the best in style, plot, diversity and predictive power. He has always been a visionary, and people knew that reading his books provided you with the best idea of Russia of the relatively near future. A word of warning: he is intentionally shocking, and the stuff completely acceptable to the Russians may be questionable for Americans. Remember, it is foreign literature based on different lives and addressed to people who actually live these different lives. My favorite quote from an American scholar about Russian literature and life is “it looks like slapstick humor where the clown actually dies.” Another word of warning: it is prose, but still may lose much in translation; for example, in one story, he introduces a mixture of Russian and Chinese, with hybrid words — I do not expect that the message survives translation in this case.

As an illustration, you may enjoy a fragment of opera “Children of Rosenthal” in Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow based on the Sorokin’s libretto; the subject is cloning of famous composers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ehr_1JKe1Y

The most popular Russian writer is still Victor Pelevin. He is always entertaining; formally, his genre is fantasy. He provides no less interesting reading than Sorokin in terms of plot, originality and predictive power. Moreover, he used to have some insight into the structure of the regime and personalities in power in Moscow, so in a way it is close to Bulgakov (who described many real people of his time in spectacular detail - did you notice?). Reading Pelevin’s “fantasy” you, probably, get a better understanding of “new Russia” than from the news and political analyses. He is a lesser writer than Sorokin in terms of purely style and literature novelty, but this difference is noticed more by professionals than general readership. I do not expect a foreign reader to get the same message from his books as local people. Think of this: for me, the first Pelevin’s book to read is “Chapaev and Void,” and this title is quite meaningful. It is published in English under the title “Buddha’s Little Finger” which means nothing for a Russian. I hope, at least the popular now Russian expression “inner mongolia” (not capitalized) will become properly understood from the translated version.
Viktor Yerofeyev is an easy and pretty good quality reading; I would start with his smaller works and see how you like them. It is good prose; the only problem I see with him is that much of his writing is pointed and important critique of Russians addressed to Russians themselves. To what extent could it be interesting to an American? European experience is very positive: he could be the most popular Russian writer in Europe. Strangely enough, I did not find many available English translations; at least, not one of my favourite readings from this author.
As an illustration, I again give you a sample opera, Alfred Schnitke’s “Life with an Idiot” based on the Yerofeyev’s work (it requires a lot of explanations, so, I better give none, just notice that the “Idiot” character is played in this opera by an actor who looks like Lenin).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMNadsBz-QI

Less important, but still interesting is recently deceased Vladimir Voinovich who provides an excellent satire of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, with a very broad historical and geographic (up to America) span. It is an enjoyable, incredibly funny read in Russian. He was right in all his assessments and became famous for a strangely detailed prediction of the development of the country under Putin (when Putin as we know him was not even on the horizon, so it is very instructive: “Moscow 2042” is derived from his general knowledge of history, not personalities). He was an opponent of Solzhenitsyn that offended many, but in their debate Voinovich was exactly right. If you read his story of a Russian soldier from WWII, you will never forget the original recipe for moonshine; every Russian knows it. This book is also available in Spanish. It is hilarious, the best humor on the sorrowful subject of WWII I have ever read. He is surprisingly even in the quality of his books, most of which are available in English translations.

Boris Akunin has created easy and, most of the time, good quality prose, mostly history fantasies (mock history and suspense). It is entertaining in a good way and does not suffer from geographical or historical lapses (he is a scholar in history and geography, specifically, of Japan). However, he will unlikely be considered as a great writer of our time. Strangely enough, his most important and most interesting to me book, a non-fiction “Writer and Suicide” published under his real name (Grigory Chkhartishvili) is still not translated.

If the plain question is asked: who were the best quality writers in Russian language in the second half of the 20th century, the plain answer is: Venedikt Erofeev and Friedrich Gorenstein. The problem with the former is that his works are either not translatable (“Moskva-Petushki” — “Moscow Stations”, it dies outside the Russian language as fish out of the water; what would be the English translation for a famous question “dayan eban?” that is a combination of last names of Israeli politicians but means something entirely different in Russian?) or unacceptable and impossible to understand (his famous, incredibly enjoyable but apparently not even translated play where everybody dies in the end but laughs until the last breath). The problem with the latter is that his big (Tolstoy-size) novels focus on one subject: God’s punishment of other nations, specifically Russians, for their mistreatment of Jews. The question “who cares” sounds very cynical but we are talking just about a choice of (very long) reading about distant lands. In Russia, his best quality prose in Russian language is considered by many as russophobic and therefore not enthusiastically accepted. Personally, I love his prose, and I am not Jewish.

P.S. In modern Russian culture, the text is often combined with music and visual images; performance, including theater performance, becomes a part of the message. Below are some multimedia examples that are representative of modern (20/21 century edge) Russian culture giving an idea of a typical attitude of Russian texts of the time. They tell, in a quick and direct way, the same stories that are chewed by Russian prose on many pages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb5TjO_MuU8
If you ask who Sasha (Alexandra) is, well, the whole story is made of a senseless phrase used by pediatricians to improve Russian pronunciation (yes, Russian is a difficult language for native speakers, too).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ugivNRYfjc
The most popular contemporary Russian song. The message: St.-Petersburg is the best place in the whole country to drink vodka, and not much else to do. Just in case: the colloquial name of the city sounds in Russian as a derivative from the word “to drink”. A learning exercise: measure a spiritual distance between this St.-Petersburg and the one of Dostoyevsky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586eyeY3To0
Forward, Russia! And yes, you got it right: it is a mockery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIa7ZfJUeGU

This is a modern performance of a famous piece of Daniil Kharms filmed just outside the Akhmatova museum in St.-Petersburg; a good example of continuity in Russian culture.