Real name - Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili (Russian:
Борис Акунин; Georgian: გრიგორი შალვას ძე ჩხარტიშვილი; Аlso see
Grigory Chkhartishvili,
Григорий Чхартишвили), born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1956. Since 1958 he lives in Moscow. Writer and translator from Japanese. Author of crime stories set in tsarist Russia. In 1998 he made his debut with novel
Azazel (to English readers known as
The Winter Queen), where he created Erast Pietrovich Fandorin.
B. Akunin refers to Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin and
Akuna, home name of Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet.
In September of 2000, Akunin was named Russian Writer of the Year and won the "Antibooker" prize in 2000 for his Erast Fandorin novel
Coronation, or the last of the Romanovs.
Akunin also created crime-solving Orthodox nun, sister Pelagia, and literary genres.
His pseudonyms are
Анатолий Брусникин and
Анна Борисова. In some Dutch editions he is also known as
Boris Akoenin.