My "Reading the World" Project: Finding the Holy Grail

I've spent the last several months engaged in my own personal "Reading the World" project, inspired by Ann Morgan who read one work of literature from every country of the world during the course of a year.  She describes her project in the following Ted Talk.

https://go.ted.com/CjMW

If you are interested in checking out all the books that Ms. Morgan read, you should go to her website.

ayearofreadingtheworld.com

I had hoped to find the book on Ms. Morgan's list written by Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstan's most noted writer, but failed miserably in my search for any copy of his works during the time I lived in Bishkek. (I described my futile search in my post of August 16.)  Instead, I resigned myself to reading a collection of four works focused primarily on Turkey.  While they were all great books, I still felt a tinge of sadness that I couldn't find any of the works of Aitmatov.

But then, one fine September morning, I was aimlessly searching the shelves of our new campus library, when I discovered it:  The Holy Grail of Kyrgyz literature for which I had been so intrepidly hunting.

Published by Telegram Books of London, 2007,  ISBN 978-1-84659-032-0   Perhaps the most annoying thing about this version of the book is that the woman on the cover portraying the Kyrgyz heroine is clearly not an ethnic Kyrgyz and bears no resemblance to the woman described in the book. Some art director at the Telegram Book Company failed to do their research. 

It was Jamilia, the book considered to be Aitmatov's master work.  Where did I find it, exactly? It was hiding among the miscellaneous books and items wedged into the backside of one of the library's movable bookshelves, disguised from clear view. But find it, I finally did.

Where I discovered the Holy Grail of Kyrgyz literature known as Jamilia.

I've now read the novella, which tells the story of a young Kyrgyz woman in World War II Kyrgyzstan named Jamilia who is married to a soldier who has gone off to battle the Nazis.  Jamilia spends her time engaged in the back-breaking work of hauling sacks of grain to the station where they will be used for the war effort. Her marriage is a loveless one as her husband barely even addresses her in his infrequent letters home.  The novella focuses on Jamilia's budding romance with a crippled war veteran named Daniyar who has returned to Kyrgyzstan and has been enlisted to assist Jamilia in hauling the grain.

I see the value of this novella, not so much as a story recounting the love of two people, but rather as a narrative that expresses love for the Kyrgyz landscape, its arts, music, culture, and traditions as a nation struggling to transition from its traditional ways to the modern Soviet world. This portrayal of Kyrgyzstan is particularly compelling for me now that I reside in this landscape and have some small appreciation for the traditional Kyrgyz ways to which I've been exposed.

I invite those of you who haven't taken me up on my invitation to read at least one work from Ann Morgan's list during the year 2016 to do so right now.  You have only a month left, but that's plenty of time to pick up an outstanding work of international literature and to learn about a part of the world with which you are completely unfamiliar.

Happy reading!