Fasil Abdulowitsch Iskander Books

The collection features a series of unconnected novellas that collectively offer a deep exploration of Soviet and post-Soviet culture. Each story blends humor and poignancy with satire and philosophy, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of the Soviet cultural heritage and mindset. Through its diverse narratives, the book captures the complexities and contradictions of life in this historical context.

In a series of semi-independent tales, Iskander tells the 80-year story of Uncle Sandro from the 1880s to the 1960s. Sandro's story is also the story of the Abkhazian people, with all their customs, superstitions, passions and sufferings.

Praised by The New York Times Book Review as "an Abkhazian Mark Twain," Fazil Iskander was one of the most acclaimed writers in the Soviet Union--and also one of the funniest. In Rabbits and Boa Constrictors, Iskander the story of a struggle between . . . well, rabbits and boa constrictors, which is really a struggle between the manipulators and the manipulated as they try to function in a failed utopia.

Oryginalną prozę Fazila Iskandera przepełnia liryzm i ciepły humor, który czasem przeradza się w sarkazm i zjadliwą satyrę. Pisarz nie stroni od wątków autobiograficznych, jego bohaterami są malownicze, zapamiętane z dzieciństwa postacie kaukaskich górali, a tłem opisywanych wydarzeń – przyroda ojczystej Abchazji. Uczty Baltazara opowiadające o pobycie w Abchazji Stalina, przyniósł przejmujący literacki opis dyktatora, wyjątkowy w rosyjskim piśmiennictwie

Volume 14 includes the best works from the pages of satire and humor of one the most popular Russian writers Fazil Iskander (b. 1929): stories, verses and epigrams, excerpts from the novel Sandro from Chegem.