Sorokin was born on 7 August 1955 in Bykovo, Moscow Oblast near Moscow. In 1972 he made his literary debut with a publication in the newspaper Za Kadry Neftyanikov (, lit. For the petroleum industry manager). He studied at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas in Moscow and graduated in 1977 as an engineer.

After graduation he worked for one year for the magazine Change (), before he had to leave due to his refusal to become a member of the Komsomol.

Throughout the 1970s, Sorokin participated in a number of art exhibitions and designed and illustrated nearly 50 books. Sorokin’s development as a writer took place amidst painters and writers of the Moscow underground scene of the 1980s. In 1985, six of Sorokin’s stories appeared in the Paris magazine A-Ya. In the same year, French publisher Syntaxe published his novel Ochered' (The Queue).

Sorokin's works, bright and striking examples of underground culture, were banned during the Soviet period. His first publication in the USSR appeared in November 1989, when the Riga-based Latvian magazine Rodnik (Spring) presented a group of Sorokin's stories. Soon after, his stories appeared in Russian literary miscellanies and magazines Tretya Modernizatsiya (The Third Modernization), Mitin Zhurnal (Mitya's Journal), Konets Veka (End of the Century), and Vestnik Novoy Literatury (Bulletin of the New Literature). In 1992, Russian publishing house Russlit published Sbornik Rasskazov (Collected Stories) — Sorokin’s first book to be nominated for a Russian Booker Prize. In September 2001, Vladimir Sorokin received the People's Booker Prize; two months later, he was presented with the Award of Andrei Bely for outstanding contributions to Russian literature.

Sorokin's books have been translated into English, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Korean, Romanian, Estonian, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, and Croatian, and are available through a number of prominent publishing houses, including Gallimard, Fischer, DuMont, BV Berlin, Haffman, Mlinarec & Plavic and Verlag der Autoren.

One of his recent novels, A Day in the Life of an Oprichnik,describes dystopian Russia in 2028, with a Tzar in the Kremlin, the Russian language with numerous Chinese expressions, and a "Great Russian Wall" separating the country from its neighbors [1].

Novels

• Ochered' (The Queue) [1983]. Paris: Syntaxe, 1985. (Translated into English, 1988. ISBN 978-0930523442.)
• Norma (The Norm) [1979-1983]. Moscow: Tri Kita in cooperation with Obscuri Viri, 1994.
• Roman (A Novel) [1985-1989]. Moscow: Tri Kita in cooperation with Obscuri Viri, 1994.
• Tridtsataia liubov’ Mariny (Marina’s Thirtieth Love) [1982-1984]. Moscow: Izdanie R. Elinina, 1995.
• Serdtsa chetyryokh (Four Stout Hearts) [1991]. Moscow: Literary Miscellany Konets Veka, 1994.
• Pervy Subbotnik (The First Saturday Workday) [1979-1984]. In Collected Works in Two Volumes. Moscow: Ad Marginem, 1998.
• Goluboe Salo (Blue Salo) [1999]. Moscow: Ad Marginem, 1999.
• Pir (The Feast) [2000]. Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2000.
• Lyod (Ice) [2002]. Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2002. (Translated into English by Jamey Gambrell, 2007. ISBN 1590171950.)
• Put' Bro (Bro's way) [2004]. Moscow: Zakharov Books, 2004.
• 23000 [2005] in Trilogy (Trilogiya). Moscow: Zakharov Books, 2005.
• Den' oprichnika (Oprichnik's Day) [2006]. Moscow: Zakharov Books, 2006.
• Zaplyv (Swimming in). Moscow: AST, 2008.
• Saharniy Kreml (Kremlin Made Of Sugar) [2008]. Moscow: AST, 2008.

Plays

• Pelmeni (1984-1987)
• Zemlyanka (The Hut, or Earth-house 1985)
• Russkaya Babushka (Russian Grandmother) (1988)
• Doverie (Confidence) (1989)
• Dismorphomania (1990)
• Yubiley (Anniversary) (1993)
• Hochzeitreise (The Post-Nuptial Journey) (1994-1995)
• Shchi (Cabbage Soup) (1995-1996)
• Dostoevsky-Trip (1997)
• S Novym Godom (Happy New Year) (1998)

Film Scripts

• Bezumny Fritz (Mad Fritz), 1994. Directors: Tatiana Didenko and Alexander Shamaysky.
• Moskva (Moscow), 2001. Director: Alexander Zeldovich. First Prize on the festival in Bonn; Award of Federation of Russian Film-Clubs for best Russian movie of the year.
• Kopeyka (Kopeck), 2002. Director: Ivan Dykhovichny. Nomination for Award "Zolotoy Oven" for best film script.
• 4 , 2004. Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Grand Jury Prize of International Film Festival Rotterdam.
• Veshch (Thing). Director: Ivan Dykhovichny.
• Cashfire. Director: Alexander Schurikhin.

Other works

• Photograph album V Glub' Rossii (In the Depths of Russia), in cooperation with painter Oleg Kulik.
• Libretto for opera Deti Rozentalya (Rosenthal's Children), with music by Leonid Desyatnikov; written on request of the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow.
• dozens of stories published in Russian and foreign periodicals.