Soviet humanist writer Fazil Iskander dead at 87

Soviet writer Fazil Iskander, whose works are known for their humourous descriptions of daily life in the Caucasus and satirical take on society under Communism, died on Sunday. A rare Russian author who flaunted his ethnic and provincial origins, Iskander breached political taboos with descriptions of Stalin's drunken feasts in his native Abkhazia although he never considered himself a dissident. Born in 1929 to an Abkhaz mother and Iranian father in the the port of Sukhumi, the main city of Abkhazia -- now a separatist region of Georgia that Russia supports -- Iskander lost his father early when he was deported to Iran in 1938, where he subsequently died.