Mischa Berlinski

Mischa Berlinski (born 1973 in New York, United States) is an American author. His first novel, Fieldwork, was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. In 2008 Berlinski won a $50,000 Whiting Award, given to writers showing early promise in their careers.

Life Berlinski is the son of author and academic David Berlinski and cellist Toby Saks, the grandson of composer and musicologist Herman Berlinski, and the brother of journalist Claire Berlinski.

Berlinski is a UC Berkeley graduate, and has worked as a journalist in Thailand.

Awards 2007 National Book Award Fiction Finalist 2008 Whiting Award 2013 American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Addison M. Metcalf Award

Works

Books Mona Acts Out (Norton, Liveright) 2025 Peacekeeping (Sarah Crichton Books) 2016 Fieldwork (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) 2007

Articles

(Reprinted online by Epic Magazine)

Reviews Stephen King reviewed Fieldwork for Entertainment Weekly. While King lauds the novel's complexity, "narrative voice full of humor and sadness," and suspense, he criticizes the book's publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for poor marketing choices:

King's review resulted in increased sales of Fieldwork. When Berlinski won the Whiting Award, he attributed it to his "luck" that "Stephen King, the most famous writer in the world, picked up my book because he didn't like the cover."

In 2007, The New York Review of Books published a positive review of Fieldwork from Hilary Mantel: