The railway
By: Hamid Ismailov
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Published: 2006
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
Subjects: Uzbekistan -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction
Description: "Set mainly in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, The Railway 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 colourful 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 full of colour. It chronicles the dramatic changes felt throughout Central Asia in the early twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: First published as Zheleznaya doroga in 1997 by Voskresen'ye

Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-290)

Translated from the Russian