Synopses & Reviews
"Maybe time in itself does not exist at all, and there exists instead only a spider's web of endless histories and tales tracing patterns in the boundless and deafening deep of eternity? Maybe Time is but a means of retelling them and listening to them?"Requiem for the Living is the life story of an orphan boy who grows up alone in a mountain village in the Caucasus and then leaves his home to find fame but not happiness. Wherever he tries to settle down he seems always to cause chaos and despair in a hitherto peaceful community. When he leaves the inhabitants are changed and resentful, living with the consequences of the events that he has set in motion, questioning the nature and the basis of their former existence. No matter how rootless the boy may seem or wish to be, human contact and the bonds of love and family are inescapable and catch up with him in the end. The boy's unique abilities and alienation underscore the distinctive Caucasian culture and their strict code of honor.
Review
"This Ossetian author skillfully blends the European and the Oriental thinking to create a 'divan': a complex Eastern literary genre, bringing to mind a Tibetan carpet. His story about the search for a lost time creates a polyphonic chorus of memories, inspiring vague associations with Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Gogol." --
Die Welt"An exciting flow of gripping imagery conveys a mythical history through a chorus of village voices led by a strange boy nicknamed Alone." --Die Zeit
"Cherchesov's novel is a completely new phenomenon in contemporary literature. The author has the courage and the talent to go against the grain, disregarding fashionable trends and well-trodden paths, to create a highly original work. The Western reader will soar with this narrative to the summits of classical modernism." --Neue Presse
Review
"This Ossetian author skillfully blends the European and the Oriental thinking to create a 'divan': a complex Eastern literary genre, bringing to mind a Tibetan carpet. His story about the search for a lost time creates a polyphonic chorus of memories, inspiring vague associations with Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Gogol." --
Die WeltReview
"An exciting flow of gripping imagery conveys a mythical history through a chorus of village voices led by a strange boy nicknamed Alone." --
Die ZeitReview
"Cherchesov's novel is a completely new phenomenon in contemporary literature. The author has the courage and the talent to go against the grain, disregarding fashionable trends and well-trodden paths, to create a highly original work. The Western reader will soar with this narrative to the summits of classical modernism." --
Neue PresseSynopsis
Faulkner-type philosophical parable abounding in ethnographic detail in which the hero's unique abilities and alienation underscore the distinctive Caucasian culture.
Synopsis
This novel, which critics have likened to William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a philosophical parable in which the hero's unique abilities and alienation underscore the distinctive Caucasian culture and their strict code of honor. It is told from within an endemic culture threatened by the advance of modern civilization.
About the Author
Alan Cherchesov, born in 1962, lives in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. A graduate of the North-Ossetian University, he lectures there on world literature and edits a university journal of cultural studies. He is the founder and director of the Institute of Civilization in Vladikavkaz, which provides alternative education in the humanities.
An Ossetian writing in Russian, Cherchesov has two novels and a number of short stories to his name. His novel Wreath on the Grave of the Wind, a sequel to Requem for the Living, was awarded the prize of the Russian Academy of Critics and published in German by DVA. Requiem for the Living was published in German by S. Fischer.