Fazil Iskander

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Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (Russian: Фазиль Абдулович Искандер; born 6 March 1929 in Sukhumi) is arguably the most famous Abkhaz writer, renowned in the former Soviet Union for his vivid descriptions of Caucasian life, mostly written in Russian. He has written various stories (including "Zashita Chika") starring "Chik" a crafty and likeable young boy.

The most famous intellectual of Abkhazia, he distanced himself from the Abkhaz secessionist strivings in the late 1980s and criticised both Georgian and Abkhaz communities of Abkhazia for their ethnic prejudices. He warned that Abkhazia could become a new Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Iskander was not taken seriously by either side in the conflict and was subjected to heavy criticism even by his Abkhaz compatriots.

He is probably best known in the English speaking world for Sandro of Chegem, a picaresque novel that recounts life in a fictional Abkhaz village from the early years of the 20th century until the 1970s. This rambling, amusing and ironic work has led some commentators to call Iskander "the García Marquez of Abkhazia", though in fact the standard hallmarks of Magic Realism are not especially obvious in the text.

He was awarded the Pushkin Prize (1993) and "Triumph" Prize (1999). Iskander currently resides in Moscow.