DUSHANBE, December 8, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Andrei Volos, an ethnic Russian from Tajikistan, has won the prestigious Russian Booker Prize, Radio Liberty, Radio Liberty reports.

Volos received the literary award -- given to works of fiction in the Russian language -- on December 4 for his novel “Coming Back to Panjroud.”

The book''s main character is Abu Abdollah Jafar ibn Mohammad Roudaki, a Tajik-Persian poet of the 10th century who is regarded as a founder of Persian classical literature.

Volos, 58, was born in Dushanbe and started his writing career in 1979. He moved to Moscow in the late 1990s.

His poems and novels are mainly about the history and culture of Central Asia, especially Tajikistan.

Volos told RFE/RL on December 6 that his writing career helped him to learn the Tajik language, through which he could look at many aspects of everyday life from a different angle.