Mikhail Shishkin (Author)
Born in 1961 in Moscow, Mikhail Shishkin is one of the most prominent names in contemporary Russian literature, and is the only author to have won all three major Russian Literary Prizes. He lives in Zurich.

Andrew Bromfield (Translator)
Andrew Bromfield has been translating from Russian for more than twenty years, with a particular focus on modern literature since the demise of the USSR. A founding editor of the journal Glas: New Russian Writing, his numerous translations include the works of Victor Pelevin and Boris Akunin. Prior to Taking Izmail, he has also translated Mikhail Shishkin's The Light and the Dark.