GG Mamatov

Bakyt Mamatov spends every summer on the high pastures above the Naryn road, milking his mares at dawn and selling kymyz from a roadside yurt to drivers who all know him by name. Winters he comes down to the village and complains about it. Travellers who linger get a lesson whether they asked for one or not. He arrived here as the undefeated champion of a valley in which he is the only player, and he has been finding out what that is worth ever since. He found the cash tables in the first week and has not moved off them, on the reasoning that a champion belongs where the chips are, and the valley has heard nothing about how it is going. He blitzes every decision, gambles the cube without a flicker, and rides the swings with a herder's fatalism. He has one die he swears was blessed and he is not joking about it.