Zinovy Zinik

Who is Zinovy Zinik?

Zinovy Zinik is a novelist and broadcaster.

Zinik was born in Moscow in 1945 into a family of totally assimilated Russian Jews. He studied painting at an art school and later studied topology at Moscow University. He started writing prose in the 1960s and contributed to the journal Teatr.

He emigrated to Israel in 1975. In 1976 he accepted a job offer from the BBC and moved to the UK to work for the BBC World Service. His first published work was "Izveshchenie"; he is the author of eight books of fiction, including the novels Peremeshchennoe litso, Nisha v Panteone, and Russofobka i fungofil, as well as the collection of short stories Mind the Doors. My Father's Leg, a documentary novella which evolved from an essay on Königsberg/Kaliningrad published in the Times Literary Supplement, was published in the Russian magazine Ural in 2005.

He can be heard on The Forum on the BBC World Service.