Părul Venerei

A man works in Switzerland, where he helps asylum seekers. He serves as their interpreter, working in Russian. Their tales haunt him as he tries to settle there. The story includes written records of their interviews. These accounts shape his thoughts. His work links tales of love, family strain and war.

He travels through Italy to seek love’s roots or truth. At home, he grows distant from his wife and son. He writes letters to his son, but addresses them to Nabucodonosaurus. This figure rules a magic island realm. The novel also draws on a diary kept by Isabella. She was a famed singer in the early twentieth century. The man once hoped to write her life story. His reading on ancient wars helps link these threads. These parts question the claim that war brings progress. This doubt applies both to the past and to today.

Mihail Şişkin builds this novel with tales inside other tales. Words shape what is real. Who the people are remains unclear. His approach does not ask readers to resolve each thread. The book won the Naţionalnîi bestseller prize in 2005. The Piotr Fomenko Workshop also made it into a stage work.

Şişkin’s life began in Moscow in 1961. He studied at the city’s State Pedagogical University. He worked for a youth magazine for three years. He then taught German and English for five years. Znamia ran his first work of literature in 1993. In 1995, he moved to Switzerland. There, he worked as an interpreter and teacher.

He won the Russkii Buker prize in 2000. He also won the Canton of Zürich prize that year. In 2005, he won a prize for essays. This was the essay award of the Prix du Meilleur livre étranger. He won the Grinzane Cavour prize in 2007. In 2011, he won Bolşaia kniga. That year brought another prize for world literature. It came from the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. He alone has won all three major Russian literary prizes. Three of his novels have reached the stage.