Mukhtar Magauin is a Kazakh writer, publicist, translator, and researcher of Kazakh folklore. In 1997, he received an international award from the Foundation of Artists and Writers of Turkey “for services to the Turkic world.” The award was presented to him by the then-President of the Republic of Turkey, Suleyman Demirel. Magauin translated into Kazakh a collection of selected stories by Somerset Maugham, as well as Henry Haggard’s novel King Solomon’s Mines.

In the story “Death of a Borzoi” Magauin uncovers latent rejection, hidden protest, and other social problems created during the sedentarization of the Kazakh steppe – all told through the eyes of a dog.