★ The representative work of Mikhail Shishkin! It was published in 1999 and won the booker Prize for Russian literature!It has been included in the literary classics of Russia and even the world! The publication of this novel has established The status of Mikhail Shishkin in the Russian literary world!
★ The novel is about fairness, carrying the writer's memories and reflections on life, reflecting the life scene of the Soviet Union and other different times in the 20th century, full of a realistic theme -- trial, with a strong post-modern style.
★The book has also been adapted into a play at the Moscow Theatre.
★ The book has become the research object by large number of scholars in many counteris who are attainments in literature, history and spiritual culture.

In this 1999 work, now available for the first time in the English language, Mikhail Shishkin displays at full force the writing talents that have won him international recognition for books like Maidenhair and The Light and the Dark.

The Izmail of the title is a border fortress town, taken and lost by Russian forces numerous times in history. Here it is taken as a metaphor for the task of mastering life itself, and the scope of the task is conveyed through a masterfully interwoven panoply of scenes from different times and settings in Russia: in this tour de force of structure, style and scholarship the interaction of the scenes creates a genuine sense of the complexity of life.

As Mikhail Shishkin's father says to him in the autobiographical chapter Conclusion: 'This life, Mishka, has to be taken like a fortress!' Among other things, Taking Izmail is a young writer's own brilliant storming of that fortress.

Mikhail Shishkin
Mikhail Shishkin was born in January 18, 1961 in Moscow, based in Switzerland since 1995, is 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. His work—both fiction and non-fiction—has been translated into over 25 languages and has received a large number of prestigious national and international awards, including Haus der Kulturen der Welt International Literature Award, The Big Book Award, The National Bestseller Prize, and many others. Mikhail Shishkin's prose fuses the best of the Russian and European literary traditions. The richness and sophistication of the language, the unique rhythm and melody of a phrase, the endless play with words and the nuanced psychological undercurrent are reminiscent of Nabokov and Chekhov. The change of narration styles and narrators within a text yield a fragmented, mosaic structure of composition that focuses on the language itself, recalling James Joyce's genius.

Selected list of prizes and awards:
2013 Shortlisted for the  e Leipzig Book Fair Prize, Germany
2011 The Big Book Award, Russia
2011 Haus der Kulturen der Welt International Literature Award, Germany
2007 Halpérine-Kaminski Prize for the Best Translation (Laure Troubeckoy), France
2007 Shortlisted for Giuseppe Berto Prize, Italy
2007 Grinzane Cavour Prize, Italy
Peoples Literature Publishing, Peking: The Best Foreign Book of the Year of the 21st Century, China
2006 Shortlisted for Bunin Literary Award, Russia
2006 The Big Book Award, Russia
2006 Shortlisted for Andrei Belyi Literary Award, Russia
2005 The National Bestseller Prize, Russia
2005 The Best Foreign Book of the Year / Le prix du meilleur
livre étranger (essay), France
2002 The Main Literary Prize of Zürich (Werkjahr), Switzerland
2000 The Russian Booker Prize for the Best Russian Novel of
the Year, Russia
2000 The Globus Prize, Russia
2000 Literary Prize of Canton Zürich, Switzerland
1994 Prize for the Best Debut of the Year, Russia