Fazil Abdulovich Iskande was born on March 6, 1929, and died on July 31, 2016.

He was an Abkhaz writer.

He was known in the former Soviet Union for his descriptions of Caucasian life, mostly written in Russian.

Fazil Iskander has written various stories, most famously “Zashita Chika”, which star a crafty and likable young boy named “Chik”.

Iskander was 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.”

His humor, like Mark Twain’s, has a tendency to sneak up on you instead of hitting you over the head.

That 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”.

There was five films were made based upon parts of the novel.

He died in Peredelkino.

Fazil Iskander passed away at 87 years old.