He was awarded the 2012 Russian Booker Prize for his novel The Peasant and the Teenager.
He first became known in Russian literary circles for his novellas Voskoboev and Elizaveta (1992) and The Turn of the River (1995).
[1] He studied literature at Moscow State University withdrawing in 1977 to enroll in the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, graduating in 1982.
His works have been published in the Russian journals Znamya, Novy Mir, and Druzhba Narodov.
[2] His novel The Peasant and the Teenager was awarded the 2012 Russian Booker Prize.