A Letter in the Snow

"Writers become letters, and letters don’t know death"

Mikhail Shishkin was born in Moscow in 1961 and lives in Switzerland. He is the author of the novels “Larionov’s Notes,” “The Taking of Izmail,” “The Venus’s Hair,” “The Epistolary Book,” and a literary-historical guidebook “Russian Switzerland.” Winner of the “Big Book,” the “Russian Booker,” and the “National Bestseller” prizes.

“Robert Walser, James Joyce, Vladimir Sharov.

During their lifetime, only a few devotees of true literature understood and loved them. The real life of their books began—alas—only after death. So it was with Walser and Joyce. I don’t doubt it will be the same with Volodya Sharov. To determine the true magnitude of such authors, you need distance.

I write about writers who are dear to me and important. The title ‘A Letter in the Snow’ is taken from the ending of the essay about Walser. A dead writer was found by children on a Christmas walk: his body lay in the snow, like a letter from some other, not-this-world alphabet.”