‘Aitmatov was nearly worshipped by his German readers, who were prepared to queue for hours to get his book signed. I think no other reader could win the hearts and minds of the German public as Chingiz Aitmatov did. No other Soviet writer had done this before.
We have seen the same reaction virtually everywhere in Europe – in large towns as well as small. I witnessed readers approaching the writer with flowers, asking him for a photograph and thanking for his books which provided them with guidance and support in difficult moments. People were waiting for his new book with anticipation and this was a very unusual reaction of Germans to a foreign writer’. - Friedrich Hitzer, German translator & publisher
‘Aitmatov is an enigma. For a start he is not Russian, but Kirghiz. Yet he has gained distinction through the medium of Russian. He writes not one but two versions of each work: first in Kirghiz, then in Russian, sometimes under a different title and in a different version, in the manner of Conrad, Nabokov and Narayan’. - James Riordan, English translator
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Rahima Abduvalieva is both a wordsmith and a polyglot who has dedicated her life to linguistics, literature, lecturing and the promotion of the written works of her famous compatriot, Chinghiz Aitmatov. Rahima continues to live and work in the leafy suburb of Richmond upon Thames in the U.K, and has many friends and colleagues with whom she enjoys the fantastic art, culture and entertainment that living in London provides.
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