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A review by spaceisavacuum
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“People experience a burning for something: that’s what feelings are about. And if those feelings are gone, what’s the point in clinging to the embers?”
Zuleikha follows a stubborn Tatar woman with green eyes as she is exiled from her village, along with her clan, to Siberia. The villagers being arrested take up pitchforks, axes and rifles. “It’s a genuine warfront!” And whose going to enlist in Siberia without putting up a fight? They navigate through the Taiga, were Dekulakized and sent to Angara, and end up in Leningrad. They had missed Moscow completely, but they’re not in Siberia! Along the way, Zuleikha gives birth to a son, and must navigate the steppe with a newborn, being fed meagre rations of bread or crackers and relying on the help of friends to meet somewhere at a fulfilling point at the end of the road- Home. That’s where they want to be. But Zuleikha, home is where the Vampire Hag lives. Ignatov, her baby daddy, was in command of transporting the prisoners to Siberia. And he’s doing it badly.
Kuznets stirs up some agitation in the barracks. They start creating agitational art. They’re afraid of the f*scists, and who isn’t? But Ukraine actually thought the Germans to be their liberators from the subjugation of the USSR. They make it to Leningrad, it’s not cold and they can hunt. I rather thought the hunt as something I myself take up when I deliver Uber. I’m on the hunt for deliveries and the spoils of the hunt are some easy pocket money.
Yuzuf’s favorite story is the magical bird Semrug. The story of Semrug in ‘the Valley of Confusion’ - “which was shaken by thunderstorms night and day, and truth and untruth were muddled.” Is like the story Philip Pullman told in the amber spyglass. Years have flown by between 1939 and 1945… Yuzuf too has taken up painting, influenced by Kuznet’s agitational art. It’s not as hard as it was in the war. Zuleikha has aged. Yuzuf is a man now and his father Ignatov has aged. Her hands have weathered, her face wrinkled. Everything they once knew has been uprooted. Sometimes tearing up the roots is the only way to be free. #zuleikha #guzelyakhina
Zuleikha follows a stubborn Tatar woman with green eyes as she is exiled from her village, along with her clan, to Siberia. The villagers being arrested take up pitchforks, axes and rifles. “It’s a genuine warfront!” And whose going to enlist in Siberia without putting up a fight? They navigate through the Taiga, were Dekulakized and sent to Angara, and end up in Leningrad. They had missed Moscow completely, but they’re not in Siberia! Along the way, Zuleikha gives birth to a son, and must navigate the steppe with a newborn, being fed meagre rations of bread or crackers and relying on the help of friends to meet somewhere at a fulfilling point at the end of the road- Home. That’s where they want to be. But Zuleikha, home is where the Vampire Hag lives. Ignatov, her baby daddy, was in command of transporting the prisoners to Siberia. And he’s doing it badly.
Kuznets stirs up some agitation in the barracks. They start creating agitational art. They’re afraid of the f*scists, and who isn’t? But Ukraine actually thought the Germans to be their liberators from the subjugation of the USSR. They make it to Leningrad, it’s not cold and they can hunt. I rather thought the hunt as something I myself take up when I deliver Uber. I’m on the hunt for deliveries and the spoils of the hunt are some easy pocket money.
Yuzuf’s favorite story is the magical bird Semrug. The story of Semrug in ‘the Valley of Confusion’ - “which was shaken by thunderstorms night and day, and truth and untruth were muddled.” Is like the story Philip Pullman told in the amber spyglass. Years have flown by between 1939 and 1945… Yuzuf too has taken up painting, influenced by Kuznet’s agitational art. It’s not as hard as it was in the war. Zuleikha has aged. Yuzuf is a man now and his father Ignatov has aged. Her hands have weathered, her face wrinkled. Everything they once knew has been uprooted. Sometimes tearing up the roots is the only way to be free. #zuleikha #guzelyakhina