Of Strangers and Bees
A Hayy ibn Yaqzan Tale
Will be published approx. on 24. October 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
446 pages
978-1-911284-36-9 (ISBN)
Description
The intricate new novel from the winner of the EBRD Literature Prize 'Life in exile! May it be cursed. Once you have become a stranger, a stranger you shall remain; you may endeavour to make friends, but the task is a difficult one, full end to end with uncertainty.' 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. Waking from a portentous dream, Uzbek writer Sheikhov is convinced that the medieval polymath Avicenna lives on, condemned to roam the world. 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. Following the award-winning The Devils' Dance, Hamid Ismailov has crafted another masterpiece, combining traditional oral storytelling with contemporary global fiction to create a modern Sufi parable about the search for truth and wisdom.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
547 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911284-36-9 (9781911284369)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Persons
Hamid Ismailov (born 1954), an Uzbek journalist and writer, was forced to flee Uzbekistan for the United Kingdom in 1992, where he took a job with the BBC World Service.Although his works are banned in Uzbekistan, he has published dozens of books in Uzbek, Russian, French, German, Turkish and other languages. These include books of poetry (Sad ('Garden'), 1987; Pustynya ('Desert'), 1988), of visual poetry (Post Faustum, 1990; Kniga Otsutstvi, 1992, novels (Sobranie Utonchyonnyh, 1988; Le Vagabond Flamboyant, 1993; Hay-ibn-Yakzan, 2001; Hostage to Celestial Turks, 2003; Doroga k smerti bol'she chem smert' ('The Road To Death Is Bigger Than Death'), 2005), and many others.He has translated Russian and Western classics into Uzbek, and Uzbek and Persian classics into Russian and other Western languages.Written before he left Uzbekistan, Ismailov's novel The Railway was the first to be translated into English. Published in 2006, it was translated by Robert Chandler, following a Russian edition which had been published in Moscow in 1997. His triptych of novels comprising Mbobo, Googling For Soul and Two Lost To Life have also been translated into English with the help of an Arts Council grant.Ismailov has been a Writer in Residence for the BBC World Service since April 2010.