Mikhail Shishkin is a Russian-Swiss writer. He writes in Russian and in German. His books have been translated into 30 languages.
His most famous book is Maidenhair – a big recommendation to this book you can read here.
Below he speaks at the German academy for language and poetry in a reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, putting things into a larger perspective, giving the full tragedy a voice that resonates deeply for me. He speaks from inside of the Russian soul: “What we think, what we feel, what we hope …”
Mr. Shishkin pulled back from the book expo in 2013 with an open letter, saying this:
“A country where power has been seized by a corrupt, criminal regime, where the state is a pyramid of thieves, where elections have become farce, where courts serve the authorities, not the law, where there are political prisoners, where state television has become a prostitute, where packs of impostors pass insane laws that are returning everyone to the Middle Ages – such a country cannot be my Russia. I want to and will represent another Russia, my Russia, a country free of impostors, a country with a state structure that defends the right of the individual, not the right to corruption, a country with a free media, free elections, and free people.”
If you were wondering what his political views are.
