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The Railway (novel)

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The Railway
AuthorHamid Ismailov
TranslatorRobert Chandler
LanguageRussian
GenreFiction
PublisherVintage Books
Publication date
1997
Publication placeRussia
Published in English
2006
ISBN9780099466130

The Railway (Russian: Железная дорога) is one of the more famous novels by Hamid Ismailov. The book was originally written before he left Uzbekistan and was translated into English by Robert Chandler and published in 2006. A Russian edition was published in Moscow in 1997 under the pseudonym Altaer Magdi (Russian: Алтаэр Магди).[1]

Plot

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The novel is plotted in Gilas, a fictitious small town on the ancient Silk Route in Uzbekistan. The heart of the novel and the town is a railway station, which sets the connection between the town and the greater world. Gilas has people from all over - Armenians, Kurds, Persians, Ukrainians, Jews, Chechens, Koreans, gypsies, Russians etc and the novel tells the stories of some of them. The book describes the dramatic changes that was felt in the Central Asia in early twentieth century. [2]

Characters

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  • Mefody-Jurisprudence -an alcoholic intellectual
  • Father Loann -a Russian priest
  • Kara-Musayev the younger-the chief of Police
  • Umarali-Moneybags -an old moneylender
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References

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  1. ^ Diane Nemec Ignashev, review of Ismailov, The Railway, Slavic and East European Journal 51.2 (Summer 2007), p. 415.
  2. ^ Guppy, Shusha. "The Railway, by Hamid Ismailov, translated by Robert Chandler". Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 7 October 2017.