The book by the famous prose writer Mikhail Shishkin includes the novels “The Taking of Ishmael”, “The Hair of Venus” and “The Letter Book”, which were awarded the prestigious “Russian Booker”, “Big Book”, “National Bestseller” awards named after I. A. Bunin. Shishkin's prose combines the best features of Russian and European literary traditions, taking from Chekhov, Bunin, Nabokov the richness of the vocabulary and subtle psychologism, and from Western authors - fragmentary composition and blurred time frames. According to the writer himself, the action of his novels takes place always and everywhere.