Who wrote the novel "Dr. Zhivago"?

"Dr. Zhivago" is a novel written by the Russian author Boris Leonidovich Pasternak.

He was born 10 February 1890 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He died 30 May 1960 (aged 70) in Peredelkino, USSR. Pasternak was both a poet and writer with notable work including "My Sister, Life", "The Second Birth", and the award winning "Doctor Zhivago".

The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet. It is set between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the 1917 Civil War. Due to its independent minded stance on the October Revolution, "Doctor Zhivago" was refused publication in the USSR. The manuscript was smuggled to Milan, Italy and was published there in 1957. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year, an event which embarrassed and enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which forced him to decline the prize, however, his descendants were later to accept it in his name in 1988.

The novel was made into a film by David Lean in 1965 and starred Omar Sharif, Geraldine Chaplin, and Julie Christie. Since then it has twice been adapted for television, most recently as a miniseries for Russian TV in 2006.