Mikhail Shishkin

Marian Schwartz

Day after day the Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter - the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise - and tell of the atrocities they've suffered, or that they've invented, or heard from someone else. These stories of escape, war, and violence intermingle with the interpreter's own reading: a history of an ancient Persian war; letters sent to his son 'Nebuchadnezzasaurus,' ruler of a distant, imaginary childhood empire; and the diaries of a Russian singer who lived through Russia's wars and revolutions.

Maidenhair

Picture two people, young and in love. Picture them being separated from one another. Picture them keeping their love alive through letters. So far, so simple. Now imagine they've not just been separated geographically, but also historically. Imagine that their love and letters now defy time and place, life and death. By now you realize that this novel is unique. And, when you learn how it has made Russian literary-prize history, and has to-date been sold in twenty-two languages, you begin to sense just how unique...

The Light and the Dark

Mürekkep Lekesi

Письмовник

The first short story collection by the greatest contemporary Russian writer, Mikhail Shishkin, spanning his entire writing career, 1993-2013.

The Collected Stories

Calligraphy Lesson

Punto di fuga

Scrisorar

Day after day Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter--the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise--and tell of the atrocities they've suffered, or that they've invented, or heard from someone else. The reader lives inside the nameless interpreter's head, with the narratives combining throughout.

Părul venerei

The first English-language collection of short stories by Russia's greatest contemporary author, Mikhail Shishkin, the only author to win all three of Russia's most prestigious literary awards. Often included in discussions of Nobel Prize contenders, Shishkin is a master prose writer in the breathtakingly beautiful style of the greatest Russian authors, known for complex, allusive novels about universal and emotional themes. Shishkin's stories read like modern versions of the eternal literature written by his greatest inspirations: Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Shishkin's short fiction is the perfect introduction to his breathtaking oeuvre, his stories touch on the same big themes as his novels, spanning discussions of love and loss, death and eternal life, emigration and exile. Calligraphy Lesson spans Shishkin's entire writing career, including his first published story, the 1993 Debut Prize–winning "Calligraphy Lesson," and his most recent story "Nabokov's Inkblot," which was written for a dramatic adaptation performed in Zurich in 2013. Mikhail Shishkin (b. 1961 in Moscow) is one of the most prominent names in contemporary Russian literature. A former interpreter for refugees in Switzerland, Shishkin divides his time between Moscow, Switzerland, and Germany.

Mikhail Shishkin

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