Born in Kazan, Guzel Yakhina is a Russian author and screenwriter. She is the winner of the Big Book literary prize and the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award. She has denounced Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, stating publicly that “This is not my war. I refuse to consider it mine.” Her novel A Volga Tale (Europa, 2023) was described as “magnificent…matches the power and majesty of the great [eponymous] river,” by Ron Charles, “sumptuous” by the Wall Street Journal, and as a “rich epic” in the New Yorker.