BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 5, 2004, RIA NOVOSTI - Russian essayist and novelist Igor Timofeyev has won a top Lebanese literary award for his biography of Kamal Jumblatt, a prominent politician and thinker.
According to Lebanon's Culture Ministry, the decision to honor the Russian author was supported by President Emile Lahoud.
Timofeyev's biographical novel, released in Beirut in 2000, was a local bestseller for the ten subsequent months. It reveals the man's character and tells of his traumatic life experiences in the context of the Middle East's turbulent 20th-century history, punctuated by upheavals such as WWI, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the Lebanese Civil War.
Two weeks ago, Timofeyev also received a prize from the Russian Writers Guild.
