Ilget is the story of a frail foundling who loses his twin brother, then by the will of mysterious supernatural forces goes from being a thrall under his adoptive father to the leader of a whole tribe. He finds himself enslaved once more when the Mongols invade the banks of his native Yenisei River, but ultimately comes to realize a truth: the greatest of blessings is to live without fear.
A Krasnoyarsk newspaper wrote of the novel, ‘The author works with myth like a skilled craftsman sculpting a dugout canoe from a cedar trunk: with powerful, deliberate movements he hollows out the wooden interior and decorates the structure that emerges with coarse writing in praise of nameless spirits. When you board this boat, first your curiosity will be sparked; then things might turn uncomfortable; and you begin to understand that you will either perish or make it to the far shore.’ Even more ethnographic and exotic than Grigorenko’s first novel Mebet, Ilget is imbued with magical realism, based on Siberian folklore and mythology.
İçerik tablosu
The Tree of the Yenisei9
Dog’s Ear (the first name)
Catching the wind11
Goose22
Children27
Lar37
The runt58
Nara67
Iron Horn72
Togot80
The heart of a soning86
A slave’s heart91
The escape98
The land of the Nga people116
Nokho129
Mourning136
The tracks142
The pack153
The cave158
Kheno162
Two demons171
The mad widow174
The face of the tribe181
The bride186
Kinsmen193
The feast202
The heavenly caravan219
Man of the Earth (the second name)
Mother225
Yabto230
Uma244
The birth of an army249
The quiet wedding257
Ants261
The widows’ rebellion267
Yando274
The campaign278
The battle of the islands283
Molkon290
My faith299
The pike’s spine305
Before the battle317
The battle328
Homecoming347
The she-wolf wife355
The gates of paradise363
Springtime Woman367
Deaf-and-Blind (the third name)378
Bloody Sky380
The hunt392
The khashar402
The moat407
On the beam424
Sounds430
The caravan440
The generous man454
The pike’s tail467