PISMOVNIK (LETTER BOOK)

Book ID/图书代码： 05224012B51512

English Summary/英文概要： Mikhail Shishkin’s stunning new novel Letterbook builds on the success of the phenomenal Maidenhair, bringing themes of love and history into a compelling framework. It records the correspondence between two lovers, torn apart by war. They tell each everything they did not manage to say while they were together: they talk about love, growing up, their parents, their childish fears and their hopes for the future.

They talk about how they suffer while they are apart and how much they miss each other. But it is not clear when exactly these letters are being written. The young man, Vladimir, is called up as part of an international force marching into China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. The girl, Sasha, finishes medical school and works as a gynaecologist. But it seems to be the 1960s. But that is not important.

In the novel, time is relative. Everything is relative. In Letterbook what is important is not what is going on outside, but rather the hours, days and years counted out by the metronome inside the two lovers, from birth to death. Sasha fell in love with Vladimir, and he returned that love. It was as if she was born again. Before that she did not exist, but now everything seems more real, and she tells him in her letters about her life, which has now started to make sense.

He writes from the front about the military hospital, about the suffering of the wounded, about the fact that all words deceive us, that they can never truly reflect feelings. Vladimir is dying but the letters keep coming. And Sasha continues to write to him, even when he is dead and she is married, about her marriage, her dead child, how she has buried her parents.

Letterbook shows yet again why Mikhail Shishkin is considered by many to be the leading writer of his generation: his mastery of emotions and time, of the broad scope and intimate details make this book unmissable.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 這是一個看似單純簡單的故事，一段初戀，兩人Vladimir及Sashka相識後，因男方身赴戰場而分離兩地，透過彼此的信件往返而架構成的故事。他們用紙筆敘述出彼此的愛情、童年、家庭、恐懼、希望及未來。他們訴說著分離的痛苦，及對彼此的思念，但兩人故事的真相似乎隨著「時間背景」的釐清而顯得格外錯綜複雜、無法掌握…
雖然Vladimir不久後死於戰事中，但Sashka的信件仍持續寄來，依然訴說著她的人生故事。而他們的故事是否只存在這往返的信件中…(Vincent)

Awards/获奖情况：翻譯版權已售20餘國，俄國最重要文學獎The Big Book Award 得獎作品！

Russia’s best-kept literary secret
Winner of The Big Book Award (Biggest Russian literary prize)

Rights Sold:
World English/ Quercus UK
Germany/ DVA
Japan/ Shinchosha
Spain Lumen / Random House Mondadori
Nethelands/ Querido
France/ Noir sur blanc
Finland/ WSOY
Norway/ Oktober
Sweden/ Ersatz
Serbia/ Paideia
Czech Republic/ Vìtrné mlyny
Lithuania/ Vaga
Latvia/ Jumava
Bulgaria/ Fakel
Estonia/ Varrak
Hungary/ Cartaphilus
Arabic/ Arab Scientific Publishers
Faroe Islands Sprotin
Denmark/ Batzer & Co,
Poland /Offers
Turkey/ offers

About the Author/作者介绍： Mikhail Shishkin，是俄國當前最受矚目的新生代作家。1961年出生於莫斯科，曾擔任學校老師及記者等。從1995年開始定居於瑞士。1993年出版首部短篇小說Calligraphy Lesson後，便榮獲年度最佳首作獎，此後，出版的小說非小說作品持續受到各大獎項的肯定。2010年出版的長篇小說Pismovnik / Letterbook更獲得俄國最重要的文學獎The Big Book Award的首獎，並將翻譯成二十餘國語言出版。
MIKHAIL SHISHKIN (Michail Schischkin, Mikhail Chichkine), born January 18, 1961 in Moscow, based in Switzerland since 1995, is one of the most prominent names in the modern Russian literature. Before becoming a writer he worked as school teacher and journalist.
His writing debut in 1993, Calligraphy Lesson, a short story translated into French and Finnish, has won him the Prize for the Best Debut of the Year. Since then his works – both fiction and non-fiction – have been translated into 8 languages and have received a large number of prestigious national and international awards, including National Bestseller Prize, National Big Book Prize and many others.
Mikhail Shishkin’s prose fuses the best of the Russian and European literary traditions. The richness and sophistication of the language, the unique rhythm and melody of a phrase, the endless play with words and the nuanced psychological undercurrent are reminiscent of Nabokov and Chekhov. The change of narration styles and narrators within a text yield a fragmented, mosaic structure of composition that focuses on the language itself, recalling James Joyce’s genius.

Format:电子手稿

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

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