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Fazil Iskander | |
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 Iskander being awarded theOrder of Merit for the Fatherland, 2010 | |
| Born | Искандер, Фазиль Абдулович Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (1929-03-06)6 March 1929 Sukhumi,SSRA,TSFSR,USSR |
| Died | 31 July 2016(2016-07-31) (aged 87) Peredelkino, Russia |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, poet |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Genre | memoirs,satire,parable,essays,aphorism |
| Notable works | Sandro of Chegem |
| Notable awards |
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| Relatives | Abdul Ibragimovich Iskander (father); Leili Khasanovna Iskander (mother); Feredun Abdulovich Iskander (brother); Giuli Abdulovna Iskander (sister) |
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Fazil Abdulovich Iskander[a] (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian[1] writer and poet known in the formerSoviet Union for his descriptions ofCaucasian life. He authored various stories, including "Zashita Chika", which features a crafty and likeable young boy named "Chik", but is probably best known for the picaresque novelSandro of Chegem and its sequelThe Gospel According to Chegem.
Fazil Abdulovich Iskander was born in 1929 in the cosmopolitan port city ofSukhumi,Georgia (then part of theUSSR) to anIranian father (Abdul Ibragimovich Iskander) and anAbkhazian mother (Leili Khasanovna Iskander).[2][3] His father was deported toIran in 1938 and sent to a penal camp where he died in 1957.[4] His father was the victim ofJoseph Stalin'sdeportation policies of the national minorities of theCaucasus.[2] As a result, Fazil and his brother Feredun and his sister Giuli were raised by his mother'sAbkhazian family.[2][4] Fazil was only nine years old at that time.[5][6]
The most famous intellectual ofAbkhazia,[citation needed] he first became well known in the mid-1960s along with other representatives of the "young prose" movement likeYury Kazakov andVasily Aksyonov, especially for what is perhaps his best story,[7]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 agoat and aWest Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica); a "remarkable satire ofLysenko's genetics andKhrushchev's agricultural campaigns, it was harshly criticized for showing the Soviet Union in a bad light."[8][9]
He is probably best known in the English speaking world forSandro of Chegem, apicaresque 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."[10] Mr. Iskander's humor, like Mark Twain's, has a tendency to sneak up on you instead of hitting you over the head.[10] This rambling, amusing and ironic work has been considered as an example ofmagic realism, although Iskander himself said he "did not care for Latin American magic realism in general".[11] Five films were made based upon parts of the novel.[12]
Iskander distanced himself from the Abkhaz secessionist strivings in the late 1980s and criticised bothGeorgian andAbkhaz communities ofAbkhazia for their ethnic prejudices.[citation needed] He warned that Abkhazia could become a newNagorno-Karabakh.[citation needed] Later Iskander resided inMoscow and was a writer for the newspaperKultura.[13]
On 3 September 2011, a statue of Iskander's literary characterChik was unveiled onSukhumi's Muhajir Quay.[14]
Iskander had been married to a Russian poet Antonina Mikhailovna Khlebnikova since 1960. In 2011 the couple published a book of poems entitledSnow and Grapes to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.[1] They had one son and one daughter.
Iskander died in his home on 31 July 2016 inPeredelkino, aged 87.[15][16][17][18]
"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)[19]
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.[citation needed]
Already after the writer's death, theFazil Iskander International Literary Prize was established in Russia in three nominations: prose, poetry and screenplay based on the works ofIskander. The Fazil Iskander International Literary Award is now in its sixth year.[30] was established on August 3, 2016 by the Russian branch of the International Russian PEN Center.
