Jamilia is at its core a conventional love story but its setting in the steppe of Kyrgyzstan during WWII turns this tale of wounded silent boy meets married girl who brings him out of himself into something exceptional.
Narrated by Seit, Jamilia's kichine bala, in other words the younger brother of her husband, the book describes the complex agragrian household of two closely related families where the older sons or jigits have all gone to fight the Germans. The war comes closer first as the limping Daniyar makes an appearance and then as Jamilia, Seit and Daniyar are daily required to deliver war-effort wheat to the railhead.
It is this series of journeys by horse through the steppe that form the backbone of the story for it is here that Daniyar starts to sing, Jamilia to fall in love and Seit to become an artist.
As Daniyar starts to sing one evening: "I was stunned. The steppe seemed to burst into bloom, heaving a sigh and drawing aside the veil of darkness, and I saw two lovers in its vast expanse. They did not seem to notice me, it was as if I was not there. I was walking along and watching as they, oblivious to the world, swayed together in tune with the song. ... Once more I was overcome by that indescribable excitement which Daniyar's singing always aroused in me. All of a sudden I knew clearly what I wanted: I wanted to draw them."
A truly beautiful book.
Jamilia, 96pp, Telegram 2007 - translated by James Riordan. SR
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