Zahhak
- Vladimir Medvedev
- Categories:Historical Fiction
- Language:Russian(Translation Services Available)
- Publication date:January,2017
- Pages:160
- Retail Price:(Unknown)
- Size:(Unknown)
- Page Views:442
- Words:(Unknown)
- Star Ratings:
- Text Color:(Unknown)
Request for Review Sample
Through our website, you are submitting the application for you to evaluate the book. If it is approved, you may read the electronic edition of this book online.
Special Note:
The submission of this request means you agree to inquire the books through RIGHTOL,
and undertakes, within 18 months, not to inquire the books through any other third party,
including but not limited to authors, publishers and other rights agencies.
Otherwise we have right to terminate your use of Rights Online and our cooperation,
as well as require a penalty of no less than 1000 US Dollars.
Feature
★Rights sold: Poland, Germany, France, Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Lebanon, Arabic!
★Simultaneously an intense period drama, a page-turning thriller, and a brilliant poetic parable on the contagious nature of evil, Zahhak has resonated powerfully with a vast readership in Russia and indisputably became the brightest literary event of the year.
Description
Zahhak is told as a polyphonic tale: seven voices with original melodies meld into a dramatic symphony in the novel’s climax. Sixteen-year-old Andrei learns to adapt to a swiftly shifting and sinister reality, desperate as he fails to help his mother and twin sister. Zarina, Andrei’s twin, unwittingly triggers a chain of tragic events and inevitably falls as their most miserable victim. The third voice belongs to their uncle Jorub, a local vet, whose views based on the respect of centuries old traditions and understanding of natural laws collide with the evil chaos brought by Zuhursho and his accomplices. A village boy Karim, nicknamed Pumpkin, who’s ridiculed by his fellow villagers and the bandits alike, falls in love with Zarina and cherishes the dream of marrying the girl. Generally a comic figure, Karim will play a tragic role in the novel’s outcome, as he kills Zuhursho in revenge for his beloved. The narrator is Oleg, a journalist from Moscow who spent his childhood in Tajikistan and has now returned to the country to interview the country’s infamous leader, a “thief in law” named Bobo Sangak. Oleg gets stuck in Talhak and has to witness the atrocities of the local tyrant, with the vain hope of escaping and publishing the evidence. Then there’s the enigmatic figure of Davron – an Afghan War veteran sufferring from severe post traumatic psychological issues. Arriving in Talhak as Zuhursho’s military hand, Davron openly despises the village’s chief, but adheres strictly to the promise he’s made and receives orders as well as his own secret system of beliefs and fears. Last but not least is a local Sufi sheikh who was a doctor of philosophy at Moscow State University in the recent past but had to abandon his promising academic career, young wife, and busy lifestyle in the capital in order to inherit the position of village sheikh and Sufi teacher from his father.
With exceptional brilliance, Medvedev forms his characters from flesh and blood, leaving the reader with no choice but to gulp down each new chapter in the desperate hope that the characters will survive the war’s meaningless meat grinder.
Author
Vladimir Medvedev was born in the Zabaikal region of Siberia but was brought up in Tajikistan, where he has spent most of his life. He has worked as a fitter, a newspaper correspondent, a photo reporter, a teacher in a village school, a laborer in a geological research group, and a literary editor. Medvedev is the author of numerous essays, novellas, and short stories published in literary magazines and a collection of short horror stories, Hunting with Kukuj (Limbus Press, St Petersburg,
2007).