Maria P.Petrova, Professor of Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, is writing about the novel by Gun Ayurzana 'White, Black, Red'...

http://macedoniadaily.blogspot.com/2009/08/struga-poetry-evenings-praised-in.html

            When I was nine years old, I read a random short novel by Russian writer Ivan Turgenev called “Notes of The Hunter”. I wanted to read any interesting story in the style of action, or maybe horror films, but I left dangerously confused because the story was not about hunting. It was my first reaction to literature. I was very small, but I understood that literature is not simply funny stories, is a puzzle, a secret, a joke that I was waiting for.

            I’m indebted to only books. They bear the responsibility for why I became the writer. After Jules Verne’s and Mark Twain’s funny heroes, first book that I really loved in my childhood, was a collection of short stories by the Soviet writer Pavel Bajov “Malakhit box”. Malakhit is gem of sharp green color, but I couldn’t find right name of this stone in English. The book was a remaking of magic tales of the Uralic-Siberian people. Except last several stories - which were dedicated to Lenin and Communist Revolution - the whole book seemed good and true, because the stories are drawn from folk magic tales.