Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories

“Often sings with powerfully estranged, original observations… minutiae and grand philosophy collide on every page.”

—BORIS FISHMAN, The New York Times Book Review

“Shishkin is interested in what is most precious and singular in classic Russian fiction: the passionate inquiry into what, in Maidenhair, is called the ‘soul, quintessence, pollen.’”

—SAM SACKS, The Wall Street Journal

“Mikhail Shishkin is the Ian McEwan of Russia. A prize-winning writer who enjoys stunning commercial and critical success…His latest novel [The Light and the Dark]… is striking proof that great Russian literature didn’t die with Dostoevsky.”

—Monocle Magazine

“[Shishkin] manages to engage Russia’s literary heritage while at the same time creating something new and altogether original.”

—World Literature Today

“Shishkin has been described as the heir apparent of the great Russian novelists, and indeed, there are times when he seems to have taken the best from each of them.”

—The Quarterly Conversation

“As an extraordinary prose stylist, Shishkin has license to be unconventional… Maidenhair is likely a work of genius.”

—World Literature Today