Reviews
"Shishkin is arguably Russia's greatest living novelist... his writing is richly textured and innovative and his themes are universal: love and death, pain and happiness, war and peace.... Shishkin's writing is both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific, evoking the rain on a dacha roof, the smell of blossoming lime trees, or the stink of human corpses."'e" Phoebe Taplin, The Guardian, "Shishkin writes with an admirable clarity and economy that not only brings each character's story to vivid life, but creates a melancholy tone. The book is full of echoes and allusions, for instance to Gogol and Shakespeare, not as if the author is playing literary games to amuse himself but completely naturally, as if these characters live with their culture the way real people actually do... The Light and the Dark is an immersive reading experience that lingers in the mind long after closing the book. If at first it seems loosely plotted and full of diversions, with a direct sentimentality usually avoided in literary novels, in the end it has an authenticity born out of a voice that is both natural and lyrical."'e" Michel Basilieres, The Toronto Star, Mikhail Shishkin is a contemporary Russian novelist whose style is remarkably solid and consistent across his oeuvre. His works could have been written any time between today and the late 19th century--and this is especially true when there are no obvious historical markers. In this epistolary novel, the love letters exchanged by Volodya and Sasha have to...'e, PRAISE FOR THE LIGHT AND THE DARK "Often sings with powerfully estranged, original observations... minutiae and grand philosophy collide on every page."-- Boris Fishman, The New York Times Book Review, "With an epistolary novel, Mikhail Shishkin demonstrates that he is heir to Tolstoy, Pasternak and Grossman. Mr. Shishkin has created a bewitching potion of reality and fantasy, of history and fable, and of lonely need and joyful consolation. An exquisite novel... His sovereignty is over the invisible and the timeless. Mr. Shishkin traces this sad story with great beauty and finesse."'e" Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal, "Whatever the secret of the time scheme, and however magic-realist or metaphysical it might be, it contributes to the book's powerful treatment of love and the vividness of being alive, underscored by the reality of ever-present morality--Shishkin is a writer with a compelling sense of the skull beneath the skin."-- Phil Baker, The Sunday Times, "There is a lyrical, poetic quality to much of Shishkin's writing... This is certainly the most complicated, protean book I've ever reviewed and one jammed with cultural allusions and ideas."'e" Tibor Fischer, Standpoint Magazine, "Mikhail Shishkin is the Ian McEwan of Russia. A prize-winning writer who enjoys stunning commercial and critical success, he's also a literary celebrity in a country that still knows how to celebrate its author-heroes. His latest novel, The Light and the Dark , in its brilliant translation, is striking proof that great Russian literature didn't die with Dostoevsky. The prose is lapidary, the evocation of history and the present razor-sharp. A wonderful book: it is filled with wonder."'e" Monocle Magazine, "Mikhail Shishkin is the Ian McEwan of Russia. A prize-winning writer who enjoys stunning commercial and critical success, he's also a literary celebrity in a country that still knows how to celebrate its author-heroes. His latest novel, The Light and the Dark , in its brilliant translation, is striking proof that great Russian literature didn't die with Dostoevsky. The prose is lapidary, the evocation of history and the present razor-sharp. A wonderful book: it is filled with wonder."-- Monocle Magazine, "Shishkin's prodigious erudition, lapidary phrasing and penchant for generic play are conspicuous components of his art... These charactersitics do indeed ally him with Nabokov, as he does have faith in the written word... And yet, unlike Nabokov, Joyce and many of their postmodern acolytes, Shishkin is unabashedly and unironically sentimental."'e" Boris Dralyuk, Times Literary Supplement, "Shishkin is arguably Russia's greatest living novelist... his writing is richly textured and innovative and his themes are universal: love and death, pain and happiness, war and peace.... Shishkin's writing is both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific, evoking the rain on a dacha roof, the smell of blossoming lime trees, or the stink of human corpses."-- Phoebe Taplin, The Guardian, Mikhail Shishkin is a contemporary Russian novelist whose style is remarkably solid and consistent across his oeuvre. His works could have been written any time between today and the late 19th century--and this is especially true when there are no obvious historical markers. In this epistolary novel, the love letters exchanged by Volodya and Sasha have to...--|9781623658779|, "Shishkin writes with an admirable clarity and economy that not only brings each character's story to vivid life, but creates a melancholy tone. The book is full of echoes and allusions, for instance to Gogol and Shakespeare, not as if the author is playing literary games to amuse himself but completely naturally, as if these characters live with their culture the way real people actually do... The Light and the Dark is an immersive reading experience that lingers in the mind long after closing the book. If at first it seems loosely plotted and full of diversions, with a direct sentimentality usually avoided in literary novels, in the end it has an authenticity born out of a voice that is both natural and lyrical."-- Michel Basilieres, The Toronto Star, PRAISE FOR THE LIGHT AND THE DARK "Often sings with powerfully estranged, original observations... minutiae and grand philosophy collide on every page."'e" Boris Fishman, The New York Times Book Review, "Shishkin's prodigious erudition, lapidary phrasing and penchant for generic play are conspicuous components of his art... These charactersitics do indeed ally him with Nabokov, as he does have faith in the written word... And yet, unlike Nabokov, Joyce and many of their postmodern acolytes, Shishkin is unabashedly and unironically sentimental."-- Boris Dralyuk, Times Literary Supplement, "There is a lyrical, poetic quality to much of Shishkin's writing... This is certainly the most complicated, protean book I've ever reviewed and one jammed with cultural allusions and ideas."-- Tibor Fischer, Standpoint Magazine, "With an epistolary novel, Mikhail Shishkin demonstrates that he is heir to Tolstoy, Pasternak and Grossman. Mr. Shishkin has created a bewitching potion of reality and fantasy, of history and fable, and of lonely need and joyful consolation. An exquisite novel... His sovereignty is over the invisible and the timeless. Mr. Shishkin traces this sad story with great beauty and finesse."-- Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal, "Whatever the secret of the time scheme, and however magic-realist or metaphysical it might be, it contributes to the book's powerful treatment of love and the vividness of being alive, underscored by the reality of ever-present morality--Shishkin is a writer with a compelling sense of the skull beneath the skin."'e" Phil Baker, The Sunday Times
