BOOKS FROM KAZAKHSTANAmanat: Women's Writing from Kazakhstan
Description:
An unprecedented collection of women's voices from the heart of Central Asia. From the foreword by Gabriel Mcguire: "I cannot think of anything quite like ... Amanat." A man is arrested for a single typo, a woman gets on buses at random, and two friends reunite in a changed world.... Diverse in form, scope and style, Amanat brings together the voices of thirteen female Kazakhstani writers, to offer a glimpse into the many lives, stories, and histories of one of the largest countries to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union. The twenty-four stories in Amanat, translated into English from Kazakh and Russian, comprise a groundbreaking survey of women's writing in the Central Asian country over its thirty years of independence, paying homage to the rich but largely unrecorded oral storytelling tradition of the region. Contemplating nostalgia, politics, and intergenerational history in a time altered by modernity, Amanat acutely traces the uncertainties, struggles, joys, and losses of a corner of the post-Soviet world often unseen and overlooked. Utterly absorbing, Amanat is an invitation to listen-the women of Kazakhstan have stories to tell.
Reviews:
(1 year ago) |
18 Sep, 2023
"Introduces the most representative yet diverse voices from post-Soviet Kazakhstan...A watershed moment in the wider appreciation and diffusion of Central Asian literature. Most striking about these stories is the sheer exuberance of the storytelling and the tang of the language."
-The Millions
"Reading Amanat feels a bit like happening upon a performance that draws you in even though you lack the full context...If you join the conversation between the 12 authors and 2 translators of this illuminating volume, you may be tempted to converse far into the night."
-Asian Review of Books
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