Eugene Vodolazkin's second novel, Laurus, won both of Russia's major literary awards, the National Big Book Award and the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award, and was shortlisted for the National Bestseller Prize and the Russian Booker Prize.His debut novel, Solovyov and Larionov, was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize and the Big Book Award. A third critically acclaimed novel, The Aviator, has also been translated into English. Vodolazkin was the 2019 winner of the Solzhenitsyn Prize. He was born in Kiev in 1964 and has worked in the department of Old Russian Literature at Pushkin House since 1990. He is an expert in medieval history and folklore and has numerous academic books and articles to his name. The author lives with his family in St. Petersburg, Russia.