Chinghiz Aitmatov

Born on 12 December 1928, Aitmatov grew up in Kyrgyzstan and chose to work across linguistic borders, writing primarily in Russian but also in his native Kyrgyz. That dual practice let him reach Soviet readers while anchoring his work in the culture of his homeland. Over decades he built a body of fiction that made him the defining figure in Kyrgyz literature, a status that held until his death on 10 June 2008.