David Shrayer-Petrov, a well-known contemporary Russian-American writer and medical scientist, has published twenty books including Herbert and Nelly, which was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize. Maxim D. Shrayer, the author's son, is professor of Russian and English at Boston College. His books include The World of Nabokov's Stories, Russian Poet/Soviet Jew, and An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature, 1800-2000.