Mikhail Elizarov

Mikhail Yuryevich Elizarov (; January 28, 1973) is a modern Russian writer and singer-songwriter of Ukrainian descent, laureate of the Russian Booker Prize in 2008 for the novel The Librarian, the National Bestseller Literary Prize in 2020 for Earth and the Grigoryev Poetry Prize in 2020 for The Orc Song.

Biography Mikhail Yelizarov was born and raised in Ukraine. He graduated from a music school, specializing in vocals. In 1996, he graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Kharkiv State University. Inasmuch as he studied at the university part-time and had no student deferment, he was forced to serve as conscript in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

From 2001 to 2003, he studied television directing in Hanover. After completing his education, he moved to Berlin, where he lived and worked until 2007.

In 2007, he moved to Moscow.

Literary career In 2001, the Russian publishing house Ad Marginem issued a collection of short novels Fingernails, which immediately captured the attention of the media and critics. The collection includes 24 short stories and a novel of the same title, the main characters of which are two pupils who possess paranormal abilities studying in a boarding school for demented children. The story was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely literary prize. Russian literary critic Lev Danilkin of the Afisha magazine hailed the collection as the best debut of the year.

The next Elizarov's novel Pasternak (2003) prompted controversial polemic among Russian critics. In this anti-liberal and anti-sectarian lampoon, the poet Boris Pasternak is depicted in the form of a demon who "poisons" the intelligentsia's minds with his works. Some critics categorized the book as "trash", "a sickening novel". Literary critic Alla Latynina wrote in Novy Mir, that the novel has "an unpretentious, rather pop culture plot". The Continent magazine, in a review of literary criticism, wrote that "when brown comes into fashion, its fans appear in literary circles", calling the author of NG-Ex libris Lev Pirogov, who spoke favourably of the novel, "a Nazi-minded ideologist". Moreover, the magazine noted that the leitmotif of the criticism was "the crisis of liberal values, the entry into the arena of the enemies of freedom".

On the other hand, the critic Vladimir Bondarenko in Zavtra newspaper praised highly the novel: "This is where the unbridled Russian revenge showed itself in full splendor, as a response to all the humiliations and insults of the Russian nation, the Russian character, the Russian faith and the Russian dream ... Through all a set of avant-garde literary techniques, through the philology of the text and dense erudition of the young writer, not inferior to either Umberto Eco, or Milorad Pavić, the unshakable centuries-old spiritual values of the Russian people are vehemently defended". Lev Danilkin labeled the novel as an "Orthodox philosophical action movie".

In 2007, Elizarov's novel The Librarian was published, which in December 2008 won him the Russian Booker Prize. The protagonist of the novel learns that some books of a forgotten Soviet writer possess mystical properties, and various groups of readers are waging a fierce battle to get them. As was noted by Anna Kuznetsova in the Znamya magazine, "Mikhail Elizarov's prose seems to be evolving like Vladimir Sorokin's: from scandalous shockingness to fiction rich in intellectual content". In 2015 the novel was translated to English by Andrew Bromfield and issued in Pushkin Press, London. Jeff VanderMeer highly praised the novel as "immensely entertaining" and compared it to works of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov, "while being very much its own thing". A television adaptation came out in 2023.

In 2011, the novel Cartoons became the finalist of the award National Bestseller.

In 2014, Elizarov won the NOS Prize in the nomination "Audience Choice Award" with the collection of short stories named We went out to smoke for 17 years. Mikhail Elizarov says, that "if we assume that the writer has two ink tanks on his desk with different kind of inks, then this book, unlike all my previous ones, is written entirely with the contents of the second ink tank. It has never happened to me before. A distinctive feature of this "second ink" is fiction. There is not a word of truth in this book". Nevertheless, the short stories in this collection are written in rather autobiographical, true-to-life style, uncharacteristic of all his previous books.

After almost six years of "silence", Mikhail Elizarov published a new book in October 2019. Titled Earth, the new novel is the first large-scale reflection on the "Russian Thanatos". As the Russian writer and critic notes in his review, "Elizarov seems to have written his best novel so far. Inspirational and at the same time masterful, mature, measured and carefully thought out from the first to the last paragraph. Despite the huge array of text, this book is only the first part of the novel Earth, titled The Digger". The plot unfolds itself around the protagonist who works in the funeral business in modern Russia and meets a mysterious young lady covered in tattoos.

Russian literary critic characterizes Elizarov as one of only two or three contemporary visionary writers of Russian literature (along with Vladimir Sharov and Sasha Sokolov)

Musical career In parallel to his literary activities, Mikhail Elizarov also performs songs of his own composition since 2010.

As of 2026, Elizarov's discography consists of thirteen albums.

Political views In 2007, Elizarov, shortly before that obtained German citizenship and moved to Moscow, stated that he realized only after some years of residence in Europe that the Western world was always Russia’s enemy, constantly waging an information and cultural war against Russian state and Russian nation. He expressed the view that true democracy did not exist in Europe and that all real power was held by elites who manipulated public opinion through mainstream media. He saw the immense pressure exerted on Russia and the biased way Western mass media presented information as self-evident facts. He also argued that Russians who emigrated to Europe were doomed to a dismal existence, and that the few who did succeed in the West do so by, to some extent, selling out their country — since a "bad" Russia is sold well, whereas a "good" Russia is not sold at all.

Since February 2022, he has maintained a public silence about the Russo-Ukrainian war and maintained a distance from the Z-media.

Literary works Prose / Проза (novel, short stories) / Kharkov: "Torsing", 2000, Fingernails / Ногти (novel, short stories) / Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2001, Pasternak (novel) / Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2003, Red film / Красная плёнка (short stories) / Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2005, The Librarian / Библиотекарь (novel) / Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2007, Blocks / Кубики (short stories) / Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2008, Cartoons / Мультики (novel) / Moscow: AST, 2010, Burattini, The Fascism has passed / Бураттини. Фашизм прошёл (essays) / Moscow: AST, 2011, , 978-5-271-36619-2 We went out to smoke for 17 years... / Мы вышли покурить на 17 лет… (short stories) / Moscow: Astel, 2012, Earth / Земля (novel) / Moscow: AST, 2019,

Awards Russian Booker Prize (2008) for the novel The Librarian. "Audience Choice Award" NOS Prize (2014), for the collection of short-stories We went out to smoke for 17 years. Winner of the National Bestseller award (2020), Earth. Grigoryev Poetry Prize (2020) for The Orc Song.

Translations Mikhail Elizarov The Librarian / translated to English by Andrew Bromfield // Published by Pushkin Press, London, February 10, 2015 | 416 Pages | Michail Jelizarow "Die Nägel" / translated to German by Hannelore Umbreit // Leipzig: "Reclam", 2003, 128 Seiten, , Mikhail Elizarov "Le Bibliothécaire" / translated to French by Françoise Mancip-Renaudie // Paris: "Calmann-Lévy", 2010, 384 p., , Mikhail Jelizarov "Neglene" / translated to Danish by Jon Kyst // København: "Forlaget Vandkunsten", 2010, 120 sider, , Michail Elizarov "Il bibliotecario" / translated to Italian by S. Guagnelli // Roma: "Atmosphere libri", 2011, 436 p., , Mihail Jelizarov "Knjiga mudrosti" / translated to Serbian by Vesna Kecman // Beograd : "Alnari", 2012, 320, с. Michail Elizarov "Cartoni" / translated to Italian by Giulia Marcucci // Roma: Atmosphere libri, 2012, 238, (Biblioteca del fuoco) . Mihhail Jelizarov "Raamatuhoidja" (The Librarian) / translated to Estonian by Veronika Einberg // Tallinn: Varrak, 2012, 359 .

Discography 2010 — Notebook / Notebook 2011 — It makes me mad / Зла не хватает 2011 — About the goat / Про козла 2012 — I'll post / Запощу 2012 — We went out to smoke for 17 years / Мы вышли покурить на 17 лет 2013 — The house and paints / Дом и краски 2014 — Book of complaints / Жалобная книга 2015 — Ragnarök / Рагнарёк 2017 — In bright phuck / В светлом ахуе 2018 — Soldier's grunge / Солдатский гранж 2020 — Sectarian album / Сектантский альбом