"One of the most prominent names in modern Russian literature."—Publishers Weekly

"The first reading of Maidenhair is like tipping the pieces of a 1000-piece jigsaw out of the box and turning them all picture-side up . . ."—Slightly Booklist

"[Shishkin] takes Nabokov's remarkable linguistic flexibility but none of his arrogance; like Chekhov, he looks on humanity with humor and compassion. Shishkin's Baroque turns of phrases seem written out of necessity and joy rather than pretention; he respects his readers, he delights in language, and he does not need to show off."—Madeleine LaRue, The Quarterly Conversation

"Shishkin—s work has been described as 'refined neo-modernism.' His dense, lyrical prose suggests the influence of 'Ulysses', but Shishkin objects that 'Joyce doesn't love his heroes'; in Maidenhair love is the crucial answer to most of the hundreds of questions."—Pheobe Taplin, Russia Beyond The Headlines

"In short, Maidenhair is the best post-Soviet Russian novel I have read. Simply put, it is true literature, a phenomenon we encounter too rarely in any language."—Daniel Kalder, The Dallas Morning News

"Shishkin is fascinated by the concept of the narratives we create for ourselves, whether entirely imagined, or based on what we think is memory and fact. Yet he doesn't ram that idea down readers' throats; he merely offers it here, in many variations, but also allows the stories themselves to be spun out. It makes for an unusual novel—unusual in the sense that it is unlike what one has encountered before, and unlike what one has come to expect. It expands, in a small but significant way, our understanding of what the novel can be and do—quite a remarkable achievement."—Michael Orthofer, Complete Review

"Maidenhair is likely a work of genius. . . . If Shishkin is right about the power of words to resurrect the dead, Maidenhair has all but secured his immortality."—Christopher Tauchen, Words Without Borders

"Most of the critics agree that 2005 will go down in the history of Russian literature as the year when Maidenhair, the new novel by Mikhail Shishkin, was published."—Literaturnaya Rossia

"Maidenhair is a kind of book they give the Nobel prize for. The novel is majestic."—Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Norway:
500 pages of pure reading pleasure – NRK

A lavish evidence of the author’s extraordinary creative power. Th is book is to be read again and again. – Aftenposten

A caleidoscope of a novel. A literary feast. One can read this book again and again, every time fi nding something new. – Adresseavisen

Germany:
Shishkin is one of the most gift ed writers on the Russian literary scene, even more so because, regardless of the fashion, he has succeeded in developing his own original style and literary conception – Ulrich Schmidt ‘Neue Züricher Zeitung’

Russia:
“Maidenhair is a kind of book they give the Nobel prize for – among many other prizes. Not surprising then that Shishkin earned the National Bestseller award… Actually, many people have written exactly the same thing about Shishkin with the following inevitable addition: the novel is majestic, huge and extremely complex. Joyce, Nabokov, Sasha Sokolov – these names are repeated in reviews all the time.” – Vladimir Itkin, “Knizhnaya Vitrina”

“Maidenhair” is a great novel about a word and a language that becomes soft
and obedient in the hands of a Master. It can create any other reality which
will be more stunning and credible that the real world. Th e gap between a word and a fact, between reality and its translation to the human language is a real hotbed of internal tension in the novel” – Maya Kucherskaya, polit.ru

“A beautiful, powerful and fascinating book which will become a milestone not only in the history of Russian literature but in the development of Russian selfawareness.“ – Bakhyt Ken zheyev, “Nezavisimaya gazeta”

“Mikhail Shishkin won the Na tional Bestseller – 2005 award… One could anathematize the jury’s decision point-blank if not for the fact that Shishkin is a genius writer. Unquestionably a future classic who already has his place in the history of Russian literature. In case of his triumph a biased reviewer wants to disregard all commercial and social considerations and simply rejoice instead. Th ey made the wrong decision – God bless them!”. – Nikoly Sukhanov, “Globalrus.ru”

“Maidenhair” by Mikhail Shishkin is a true delight of prose. Th is novel should not be read but drunk – sometimes in one gulp, sometimes little by little, in tiny burning sips”. – Tatiana Yegereva, „InOut“

★ Rights sold: US/UK,Denmark,Sweden,Estonia,Norway,Greece,Slovenia,Germany, France,Italy,Serbia,Bulgaria,China,Poland,Turkey,Romania,Arabic, Albania!
★ One of mikhail Shishkin's representative works, regarded as one of the literary classics of Russia and even the world.
★ Different countries, different destinies, different sufferings, eternal pursuit. Like Noah's ark, in Shishkin's own words, the novel is a ship that carries the hero and the reader through the hardships.
★ It is also an important research object for scholars in many countries to study Shishkin's creation and further understand Russian postmodernism literature.
★ Complete English translation available.
★ Awards:
-National Big Book Award 2006, Russia;
-National Bestseller Prize 2005, Russia;
-Nominated and short-listed for Bunin Literary Award 2006, Russia;
-Nominated and short-listed for Andrei Belyi Literary Award 2006, Russia;
-Halpérine-Kaminski Prize for the Best Translation 2007 (Laure Troubeckoy),France;
-Shortlist Giuseppe Berto Prize 2007; Grinzane Cavour Prize 2007,Italy;
-The Prize of the People’s Literature Publishing House, Peking: The Best Foreign Book of the Year of the 21st Century, China.

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 in the early part of the twentieth century, and eventually saw the Soviet Union's dissolution.

Mikhail Shishkin's Maidenhair is an instant classic of Russian literature. It bravely takes on the eternal questions—of truth and fiction, of time and timeless­ness, of love and war, of Death and the Word—and is a movingly luminescent expression of the pain of life and its uncountable joys.

Mikhail Shishkin
Mikhail Shishkin, born January 18, 1961 in Moscow, based in Switzerland since 1995, is one of the most prominent names in the modern Russian literature. Before becoming a writer he worked as school teacher and journalist. His writing debut in 1993, Calligraphy Lesson, a short story translated into French and Finnish, has won him the prize for the Best Debut of the Year. Since then his work – both fi ction and non-fi ction – has been translated into over 25 languages and have 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 The 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