The dead lake

by Hamid Ismailov

Other authorsAndrew Bromfield (Translator.)
Paperback, 2014

Collection

Status

Available

Description

A haunting Russian tale about the environmental legacy of the Cold War. Yerzhan grows up in a remote part of Kazakhstan where the Soviets tests atomic weapons. As a young boy he falls in love with the neighbour's daughter and one evening, to impress her, he dives into a forbidden lake. The radio-active water changes Yerzhan. He will never grow into a man. While the girl he loves becomes a beautiful woman. 'Like a Grimm's Fairy tale, this story transforms an innermost fear into an outward reality. We witness a prepubescent boy's secret terror of not growing up into a man. We also wander in a beautiful, fierce landscape unlike any other we find in Western Literature. And by the end of Yerzhan's tale we are awe-struck by our human resilience in the face of catastrophic, man-made, follies.… (more)

Publication

London : Peirene Press, 2014.

ISBN

9781908670144

Pages

122

Language

Original language

Russian

Original publication date

2011
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