Author:Hamid Ismailov,Robert Chandler
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 chronicles the dramatic changes felt throughout Central Asia in the early twentieth century.
A wonderfully engaging novel
—— Melissa McClements , Financial TimesImagine Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude on the empty plains of central Asia...The Railway is a bold and inventive, if damning, whirl through Central Asia's 20th-century history
—— Charlotte Hobson , Daily TelegraphIt is a work of rare beauty - an utterly readable, compelling book
—— Craig Murray , New StatesmanA poet's novel, full of memorable descriptive passages and heart-wrenching asides
—— IndependentAll picaresque exuberance, a jumble of influences from Persian to Soviet and beyond
—— Catherine Lockerbie , Sunday HeraldStrange and beautiful
—— The TimesRobert Chandler's tenderly attentive rendering of The Railway perfectly captures the dreamy, circling music of Hamid Ismailov's prose
—— Chandrahas Choudhury , Daily TelegraphJean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity
—— GuardianAnna Maxted tells a tale of sibling rivalry with wit and emotion
—— InStyleWarm, poignant and very funny
—— Marian KeyesHugely funny. Maxted writes beautifully
—— Daily ExpressThis modern day mythical fantasy is Anne Rice on an epic scale, a hugely imagined world. A chiller thriller from cold of Russia, this one's been selling like hot cakes around the world
—— Sunday Sport
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