Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (russian: Фази́ль Абду́лович Исканде́р; ab, Фазиль Абдул-иԥа Искандер; 6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who praised Abkhazia a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't written anything in the Abkhaz language. The choice of Russian culture was principal to me."

interview in Rossiyskaya Gazeta'', March 4, 2011 (in Russian) writer and poet known in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

for his descriptions of Caucasian life. He authored various stories, including "Zashita Chika", which features a crafty and likable young boy named "Chik", but is probably best known for the picaresque novel ''Sandro of Chegem'' and its sequel ''The Gospel According to Chegem''.

Biography

Early life

Fazil Abdulovich Iskander was born in 1929 in the cosmopolitan port city of Sukhumi, Georgia (then part of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

) to an Iranian father (Abdul Ibragimovich Iskander) and an Abkhazian mother (Leili Khasanovna Iskander).Christine Rydel
''Russian Prose Writers After World War II, Volume 302''
p 122. Thomson Gale, 2005 His father was deported to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 1938 and sent to a penal camp where he died in 1957. His father was the victim of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

's deportation policies of the national minorities of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...

. As a result, Fazil and his brother Feredun and his sister Giuli were raised by his mother's Abkhazian family. Fazil was only nine years old at that time.

Career

The most famous intellectual of Abkhazia, he first became well known in the mid-1960s along with other representatives of the "young prose" movement like Yury Kazakov and

Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the aut ...

, especially for what is perhaps his best story, ''Sozvezdie kozlotura'' (1966), variously translated as "The Goatibex Constellation," "The Constellation of the Goat-Buffalo," and "Constellation of Capritaurus." It is written from the point of view of a young newspaperman who returns to his native Abkhazia, joins the staff of a local newspaper, and is caught up in the publicity campaign for a newly produced farm animal, a cross between a

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

and a West Caucasian tur (''Capra caucasica''); a "remarkable satire of Lysenko's genetics and Khrushchev's agricultural campaigns, it was harshly criticized for showing the Soviet Union in a bad light." 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, which evoked praise for the author as "an Abkhazian Mark Twain."Jacoby, Susan
"An Abkhazian Mark Twain".
''The New York Times''. 15 May 1983. Retrieved 24 June 2009. Mr. Iskander's humor, like Mark Twain's, has a tendency to sneak up on you instead of hitting you over the head. This rambling, amusing and ironic work has been considered as an example of magic realism, although Iskander himself said he "did not care for Latin American magic realism in general". Five films were made based upon parts of the novel. Iskander 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. Later Iskander resided in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and was a writer for the newspaper ''

Kultura ''Kultura'' (, ''Culture'')—sometimes referred to as ''Kultura Paryska'' ("Paris-based Culture")—was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by ''Instytut Literacki'' (the Literary Institute), ini ...

''. On 3 September 2011, a statue of Iskander's literary character ''Chik'' was unveiled on Sukhumi's Muhajir Quay.

Family

Iskander had been married to a Russian poet Antonina Mikhailovna Khlebnikova since 1960. In 2011 the couple published a book of poems entitled ''Snow and Grapes'' to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. They had one son and one daughter.

Death

Iskander died in his home on 31 July 2016 in Peredelkino, aged 87.

Quotes

"Perhaps the most touching and profound characteristic of childhood is an unquestioning belief in the rule of common sense. The child believes that the world is rational and hence regards everything irrational as some sort of obstacle to be pushed aside. . . . The best people, I think, are those who over the years have managed to retain this childhood faith in the world's rationality. For it is this faith which provides man with passion and zeal in his struggle against the twin follies of cruelty and stupidity." (The Goatibex Constellation) „all serious Russian and European literature is an endless commentary on the gospel.“ („Reflections of a Writer“ by Fazil Iskander)

Awards and prizes

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

(1989) - for his novel "Sandro of Chegem" * Alfred Toepfer foundation's

Pushkin Prize The Pushkin Prize (russian: Пушкинская премия) was established in 1881 by the Russian Academy of Sciences to honor one of the greatest Russian poets Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837). The prize was awarded to the Russian who achieved ...

(1992) *

State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...

in Literature and Arts (1993, 2013) * Triumph Prize (1999). * Order of Honour and Glory, 1st class (Abkhazia, 18 June 2002) * Order of Merit for the Fatherland;) **2nd class (29 September 2004) **3rd class (3 March 1999) **4th class (13 March 2009, presented on February 17, 2010.) * Honorary Member of Russian Academy of Arts * Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award (2011) - for the novel "Sandro of Chegem" * Ivan Bunin literary award (2013) In 2009, Bank of Abkhazia issued a commemorative silver coin from the series "Outstanding Personalities of Abkhazia", dedicated to Fazil Iskander denomination of 10 apsaras. Already after the writer's death, the Fazil Iskander International Literary Prize was established in Russia in three nominations: prose, poetry and screenplay based on the works o
Iskander
The Fazil Iskander International Literary Award is now in its sixth year. was established on August 3, 2016 by the Russian branch of the International Russian PEN Center.

Works

Works in English translation

*''Forbidden Fruit and Other Stories'', Central Books LTD, 1972. *''The Goatibex Constellation'', Ardis, 1975. * * ''Contemporary Russian Prose'' (English and Russian Edition), 1980 *''Sandro of Chegem'', Vintage Books, 1983. *''The Gospel According to Chegem'', Vintage Books, 1984. *''Chik and His Friends'', Ardis 1985. * ''Bolshoi den bolshogo doma: Rasskazy'', 1986 * *''Rabbits and Boa Constrictors'', Ardis, 1989. (Co-authored with Ronald E. Peterson) *''The Old House Under the Cypress Tree'', Faber and Faber, 1996. *''The Thirteenth Labour of Hercules'', Raduga, 1997. * ''Rasskazy, povestʹ, skazka, dialog, ėsse, stikhi (Zerkalo)'' (Russian Edition), 1999 * ''Parom'' (Russian Edition), 2004 * ''Kozy i Shekspir: oats and Shakespear: ', Russian Edition, 2008 * ''Put' iz Variag v Greki'' (The Road from the Varangians to the Greeks), Russian Edition 2008 * ''Zoloto Vil'gel'ma: Povesti, Rasskazy'' (Gold of Vilgel'm: Stories, tales), 2010. * ''L'energia della vergogna'' (Italian Edition), 2014. * ''The Mystery of Conscience'', 2016. * ''Departures'', 2016 * ''Sandró de Cheguem (Narrativa)'' (Spanish Edition), 2017 * ''Druzia-priiateli/Detstvo Chika'', Russian Edition 2018 * ''Zvezdnyy kamen'' (Russian Edition), 2019 * ''The Commonwealth Reconstructed''

Online

Works by Fazil Iskander on Archive.org

References

External links

Fazil Iskander IMDb

Books by Fazil Iskander
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iskander, Fazil 1929 births 2016 deaths People from Sukhumi Abkhazian writers Iranian writers Iranian people of Abkhazian descent Recipients of the USSR State Prize Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Pushkin Prize winners Russian male novelists Soviet novelists Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet short story writers 20th-century Russian short story writers Honorary Members of the Russian Academy of Arts Russian humorists Russian people of Abkhazian descent Russian people of Iranian descent Russian male short story writers Soviet people of Iranian descent Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni