Book Day at AUCA Library

May 3, 2023

April is traditionally considered the month of books because two book holidays are celebrated: April 2 - Children's Book Day, and April 23 - World Book Day. Combining these two holidays, the AUCA Library held a Book Day on April 13. Book Day began with a fair from Raritet and IQ bookstore stores. Books in Russian and English were presented at the fair - novelties, the best examples of famous science literature, and children's books. Everyone could buy the books they liked.

Then there was a presentation of the book "Dalina. The Chess Knight's Sacrifice" by Anna Ak Kuu, an aspiring French writer, and her team.

The Birth of Book is a fantastic story of a French girl who fell in love with Kyrgyzstan, and this love helped her writing talent unfold. As Anna said at the presentation, she has been writing short stories and novels since she was ten. Having entered the university, she had other hobbies, and her penchant for writing faded into the background. In her fourth course, she wanted to live abroad and improve her Russian. Since by that time, she had already made friends with Kyrgyz girls; she decided to come to Kyrgyzstan. She spent the autumn of 2018 in Bishkek, teaching French at KNU. She enjoyed the experience so much that she returned to Kyrgyzstan in March 2019. At that time, she met and became friends with Aizhamal, one of her students, and later became the prototype for one of the main characters of her book. At that time, Anna dreamed of enrolling in a master's program in Switzerland and returning to Kyrgyzstan in a year for an internship. But the pandemic adjusted her plans, and she did her traineeship online. In the spring of 2021, she began writing the novel and completed it in three months. Anna understood that her work could have been better and needed to be improved. In April, she got a job online, and nothing prevented her from returning to Bishkek in November 2021. In January, a new period in her life began - she began teaching at TSI AUCA, and at the same time, the painstaking work of polishing the novel started, and slowly it began to take shape. "This is my first novel so it could have been further improved. Being a writer is not a question of talent but of work. You must write again and again," Anna said.

"Dalina. The Chess Knight's Sacrifice" is the first volume of a fantasy trilogy set in the future. The second book has already been written and is now being translated into Russian, and the third volume is being written right now. Anna spoke in detail about the creation of characters, the place of Kyrgyzstan in the book, and interculturality in the novel. But, as Anna emphasized, the book's appearance would not have been possible if it were not for the help of her friends and like-minded people. Since Anna wrote in French, it was necessary to translate into Russian and English, proofread the text, and create a book layout and illustrations. Her friends did all this, and each brought a personal touch to this book. In addition, Anna's students from TSI AUCA created the cover layout.

After Anna's presentation, numerous questions from the guests followed, and the event ended with a pastry - a cake with a picture of a book cover.

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