“Sandro of Chegem” is Fazil Iskander’s main book (1929–2016), a humorous, sunny Abkhaz epic and a picaresque novel, in which the author’s unique, powerful talent shines brightly—drawing us into a great multicolored carnival of life that is joyful, tragic, and beautiful.
A gripping tale of Sandro’s fate, his relatives, the residents of the village of Chegem, and even some fictional peoples—yet it also includes entirely real historical figures (Joseph Stalin, Nestor Lakoba, Prince of Oldenburg, and others).
The novel is composed of novellas of different genres: drama, fairy tale, parable, detective story.