Ilya Mitrofanov

ELKOST Intl. literary agency is proud to represent WORLD PUBLISHING RIGHTS in Ilya Mitrofanov (1948-1994) estate

Ilya Mitrofanov’s life and promising literary career terminated abruptly and tragically in 1994, when he died aged only 46, the circumstances of his death yet unascertained.

His literary art represent the quintessence of what is associated traditionally with the ‘Classical Russian Literature’ notion: it’s a fantastic and breathtaking dive into the deepest and the most unpredictable insides of the human psyche. Mitrofanov's power of insight into the lower depths and the higher yearnings of the human soul born at once with the Russian people's intimate acquaintance with suffering and their unusual vitality of character.

Mitrofanov’s protagonists face situations essential for a high tragedy; they confront catastrophic natural or sociopolitical powers, and live through experiences far beyond human resistance. Their recollections, these keen experiences of ordinary unsophisticated people, raise the inner reality of Mitrofanov’s prose up to the almost mythical, panhuman, universal level.

The author’s favorite technique is to wipe off a distance between his reader and his protagonist using the first-person narration, to make a reader perceive and see the situation through protagonist’s eyes, and he masters it perfectly. There’s no author’s voice in his literature; neither author grants to his reader an option to analyze the situation, but to live it through along with his hero. As a result, you’ll never forget what you’ve been through together.

 Ilya Mitrofanov was one of the last great masters of Russian narrative genre. (Italo Arcuri, diario21.net)