Description
A haunting Russian tale about the environmental legacy of the Cold War. Yerzhan grows up in a remote part of Kazakhstan where the Soviets tests atomic weapons. As a young boy he falls in love with the neighbourOCOs daughter and one evening, to impress her, he dives into a forbidden lake. The radio-active water changes Yerzhan. He will never grow into a man. While the girl he loves becomes a beautiful woman. Why Peirene chose to publish this book: ?Like a GrimmOCOs Fairy tale, this story transforms an innermost fear into an outward reality. We witness a prepubescent boyOCOs secret terror of not growing up into a man. We also wander in a beautiful, fierce landscape unlike any other we find in Western Literature. And by the end of YerzhanOCOs tale we are awe-struck by our human resilience in the face of catastrophic, man-made, follies.OCO Meike Ziervogel "