|
Showing 1 - 7 of
7 matches in All Departments
|
Manaschi (Paperback)
Hamid Ismailov
|
R327
R274
Discovery Miles 2 740
Save R53 (16%)
|
Ships in 9 - 15 working days
|
In the latest thrilling multi-stranded epic from the award-winning
author of The Devils' Dance, an Uzbek writer in exile traces the
fate of the medieval polymath Avicenna, who shaped Islamic thought
and science for centuries. Following a strange dream Uzbek writer
Sheikhov is convinced that the medieval polymath Avicenna has been
condemned to roam the world for centuries. The novel follows
Avicenna in various incarnations across the ages from Ottoman
Turkey to medieval Germany and Renaissance Italy. Sheikhov plies
the same route, though his troubles are distinctly modern as he
endures the petty humiliations of exile. Drawing from his own
experience as a writer in exile, Hamid Ismailov has crafted another
masterpiece, combining traditional oral storytelling and
contemporary global fiction in a modern reincarnation of a famous
Sufi parable.
The story begins on the eve of 9/11, with the narrator's haunting
description of the airplane attack on the Twin Towers as seen on TV
while he is on holiday in Central Asia. Subsequent chapters shift
backwards and forwards in time, but two main themes emerge: the
rise of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan under the charismatic
but reclusive leadership of Tahir Yuldash and Juma Namangani; and
the main character, poet Belgi's movement from the outer edge of
the circle, from the mountains of Osh, into the inner sanctum of
al-Qaeda, and ultimately to a meeting with Sheikh bin Laden
himself. His journey begins with a search for a Sufi spiritual
master and ends in guerrilla warfare, and it is this tension
between a transcendental and a violent response to oppression,
between the book and the bomb, that gives the novel its specific
poignancy. Along the way, Ismailov provides wonderfully vivid
accounts of historical events (as witnessed by Belgi) such as the
siege of Kunduz, the breakout from Shebergan prison - a kind of
Afghan Guantanamo - and the insurgency in the Ferghana Valley.
Set mainly in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, this compelling
novel introduces to us the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas
on the ancient Silk Route. Among those whose stories we hear are
Mefody-Jurisprudence, the town's alcoholic intellectual; Father
Ioann, a Russian priest; Kara-Musayev the Younger, the chief of
police; and Umarali-Moneybags, the old moneylender. Their colorful
lives offer a unique and comic picture of a little-known land
populated by outgoing Mullahs, incoming Bolsheviks, and a plethora
of Uzbeks, Russians, Persians, Jews, Koreans, Tatars, and Gypsies.
At the heart of both the town and the novel stands the railway
station--a source of income and influence, and a connection to the
greater world beyond the town. Rich and picaresque, "The Railway"
is highly sophisticated yet contains a naive delight in its
storytelling, chronicling the dramatic changes felt throughout
Central Asia in the early 20th century.
The "reality novel" A Poet and Bin-Laden set in Central Asia at the
turn of the 21st century against a swirling backdrop of Islamic
fundamentalism in the Ferghana Valley and beyond, gives a
first-hand account on the militants and Taliban's internal life.
The novel begins on the eve of 9/11, with the narrator's haunting
description of the airplane attack on the Twin Towers as seen on TV
while he is on holiday in Central Asia; and tells the story of an
Uzbek poet Belgi, who was disappointed in the authoritarian regime
in Uzbekistan and became a terrorist in the eyes of the world. His
journey begins with a search for a Sufi spiritual master and ends
in guerrilla warfare, and it is this tension between a
transcendental and a violent response to oppression, between the
book and the bomb, between Archipelago GULAG and modern Central
Asia and Afghanistan, that gives the novel its specific poignancy.
In this book Hamid Ismailov masterfully intertwines fiction with
documentary and provides wonderfully vivid accounts of historical
events such as the siege of Kunduz, the breakout from Shebergan
prison and the insurgency in the Ferghana Valley as witnessed by
the Byronian figure of Belgi, who enters the inner sanctum of
al-Qaeda, and ultimately meets Sheikh bin Laden himself.
From Uzbek author-in-exile Hamid Ismailov comes a dark new parable
of power, corruption, fraud, and deception. Ismailov narrates an
intimate clash of civilizations as he follows the lives of three
expatriates living in England. Domrul is a young Turk with vague
and painful memories of ethnic strife in the Uzbekistan of his
childhood. His Irish girlfriend Emer struggles with her own
adolescent trauma from growing up in war-torn Bosnia. Domrul is the
caretaker for Gaia, the eighty-year-old, powerful wife of a Soviet
party boss with a mysterious past. One of Ismailov's few novels
written in Uzbek, Gaia, Queen of Ants offers a rare portrait of a
complex and little-known part of the world. A plot centered on
political corruption and ethnic conflict is punctuated with Sufi
philosophy and religious gullibility. As Ismailov's characters
grapple with questions of faith, power, sex, and family, Gaia,
Queen of Ants presents a moving tale of universal themes set
against a Central Asian backdrop in the twenty-first century.
|
You may like...
Morgan
Kate Mara, Jennifer Jason Leigh, …
Blu-ray disc
(1)
R67
Discovery Miles 670
|