Maiden's Hair Venerin Volos Novel 479 pp Znamya, Moscow, Nr. 4/5/6-2005 Vagrius, Moscow, 2005, 2007 Rights sold to: Denmark: Batzer & Co, 2009 Estonia: Varrak, 2009 Norway: Forlaget Oktober, 2009 Germany: DVA, 2008 France: Fayard, Paris, 2007 Italy: Voland Edizione, Rome, 2006 Serbia: Paideia, Beograd, 2006 Bulgaria: Fakel, Sofia, 2007 China: People’s Literature, Peking, 2006

France:
Halperine-Kaminski Prize For The Best Translation 2007 (Laure Troubeckoy)

Italy:
Shortlist Giuseppe Berto Prize 2007
Grinzane Cavour Prize 2007

China:
The Prize Of The People’s Literature Publishing House, Peking: The Best Foreign Book Of The Year Of The 21st Century

Over 70000 Copies Sold In Russia
French & Italian Translations Available

Synopsys
“Maiden’s Hair is a kind of book they give Nobel prize for – among many other prizes. Not surprising then that Shishkin earned the National Bestseller award…” – this quote from Bookshelf Magazine is just a small fraction of praise the book has received in Russia, and rightly so. It is a brilliant novel that unquestionably belongs with the greatest works of Russian literature. It’s universal at its core – and not only because the action takes place across countries and historical epochs, virtually destroying boundaries. The whole novel is a metaphor of a resurrection of the soul – through the word. And through love.

The story begins in Switzerland – the narrator works at the local immigration office interpreting interviews with Russian refugees seeking asylum. They all tell stories – some came to Zurich from Chechnya, others from orphanages, some lost their houses in the war, or had parents murdered in front of their eyes, or were raped in prison with a mop handle, tortured, persecuted... They tell these stories for one reason, to stay. One horrid story follows another, in a chain of endless questions and answers,. We don’t know what’s true and what’s not any more but at the end it really doesn’t matter whether it’s really happened to them or not – it’s enough to know that the stories are true. Now they have a chance to re-write their lives, to get a new beginning, to find their new true selves. The interpreter becomes the only link between the two worlds, the gatekeeper to the better life. Their lives will lead to their deaths. Unless he redeems them. Once again, with a word.

Between the interviews the interpreter writes letters to his son addressing him as Emperor Navuhodonozaur – letters that will never be sent, describing his life as a servant of the “Swiss Paradise Ministry of Defense.” He remembers his past, reviving and reliving the story of his doomed love, which resonates with other great love stories of world literature – Daphnis and Chloe, Tristan and Isolde.

In the meantime he reads Anabasis by Xenophon about the Persian expedition. And since the written word has the power to revivify the past, it is today that the Greek mercenaries retreat to the sea, march though the deserts and towns, cross over rivers – and meet a group of Chechenian refugees who come down from the mountains, having sworn that they’d rather die than surrender to the Russians. Time becomes irrelevant, their meeting seems only natural, and so the Greeks and the Chechenians continue their journey together.

Interviews, letters, memories, love stories, Greeks, Chechenians are linked in a single chain of events and human destinies, interwoven, resonating with one another, outside of time. Another distinctive voice in this chorus of voices is a fictional diary of Bella, or Isabella Yurjeva, a Russian romance singer, notorious beauty and socialite that the main character uses to write her biography – or to bring her back to life as he interprets his task. It’s nothing more than a girl’s private diary where she describes her childhood, her love affairs, her success, her ups and downs - but somehow it manages to depict a hole era from the pre-Soviet times till this day through the events of her 100-year long life.

In Maiden’s Hair Shishkin demonstrates utter proficiency in various styles and manners of speech. The main character’s line of work is by no means accidental – his interpreting skills are a metaphor for omniscience – and the real meaning of a Word – thus his almost obsessive desire to find the tomb of Saint Cyril, the creator of the Cyrillic alphabet, while in Rome. This is the alphabet of which his universe is made. The world is magic only because its story can be told. It’s unpredictable and erratic, but what once existed will exist for ever. In the word.

Maiden’s Hair is in many ways an autobiographical novel. Just like his main character, Mikhail Shishkin worked as an interpreter at an immigration agency.

”I work in a federal immigration office dealing with refugees. I translate interrogations – well, the PC term would be interviews – which sometimes makes me feel part of some strange kind of passion play. Some pretend to be political refugees, others make believe that they are willing to grant them political asylum. They all know it’s nothing but a game, but nonetheless they take this game seriously. Thanks to my job as an interpreter I all of a sudden end up in the midst of such tension, such incredible human stories here in Switzerland that I would probably never come across in Russia. In Russia it’s like the air your breathe, it’s more like a background that you try to escape from. And here you really let it sink in. Question – answer, question – answer. At some point you get an impression that you are talking to yourself. And when I got this feeling for the first time I realized – I have my novel.”

Up until now the book has sold over 100000 copies, while a new edition of the novel as part of complete works has recently been released by Vagrius Publishing, Moscow. Shishkin routinely presents author talks to capacity crowds across Europe and America.

Reviews:
“Maiden’s Hair 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”

“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 self-awareness.“ - Bakhyt Kenzheyev, “Nezavisimaya gazeta”

“Maiden’s Hair” 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. The 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

“Maiden’s Hair” is probably the most politically incorrect work I have read lately. You can hardly see on TV the things Shishkin writes about. Many writers express in their books what some public figures cannot take the liberty to say in their interviews. But Shishkin, with the naked truth of his novel “Maiden’s Hair” beat them all. He created something that may be called not only a novel but a fresco of a human life” - Vitaly Grushko, “Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti”

“Mikhail Shishkin won the National 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. They made the wrong decision – God bless them!” - Nikoly Sukhanov, “Globalrus.ru”

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

“A country needs “big” literature as well – big in scale of ambitions and volume. Something weighty and solid; something capable of closing the hole in the national and cultural self-awareness through which thinner and thinner air whistles by. And now “Maiden’s hair” by Mikhail Shishkin – multilayered, multidimensional, metaphysical, spreading from the Civil war to a contemporary Swiss immigration agency working with refugees; from Artaxerxes to Christian esoterics; from stream of consciousness to a girl’s diary.” - Alexander Garros, “Expert”

“An unusual novel. Probably, genius.” - Yana Sokolova, “Chitalny zal”

“Meanwhile, Shishkin’s work is not at all a philological novel for a literary coterie or a boring high brow read that reminds one of lapped milk. Although very different from Pavic’s works, it could become just as famous.” - Vladimir Berezin, “Time Out”

“The writer does not give in to the demands of an age that likes to transform literature into a mere pastime. He tries to connect the achievements of Western literature of the XX century and its love for verbal technique with the humanistic nature of Russian literature. His new novel speaks about the most important subject: how to defeat death with love.” - Dmitry Kharitonov, “Moscow News”

“Most or the critics agree that 2005 will go down in the history of Russian literature as the year when “Maiden’s Hair”, the new novel by Mikhail Shishkin, was published.” - Vyacheslav Ogryzko, “Literaturnaya Rossia”

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