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Night and Day (1934), an unfinished dilogy by Uzbek author Abdulhamid Sulaymon o’g’li Cho’lpon, gives readers a glimpse into the everyday struggles of men and women in Russian imperial Turkestan.
More than just historical prose, Cho’lpon’s magnum opus reads as poetic elegy and turns on dramatic irony. Though Night, the first and only extant book of the dilogy, depicts the terrible fate of a young girl condemned to marry a sexual glutton, nothing is what it seems. Readers find themselves questioning the nature of Russian colonialism, resistance to it, and even the intentions of the author, whose life and the second book of his dilogy, Day, were lost to Stalinist terror.
“The book is well served by a detailed introduction describing the life of Cho’lpon and the literary and political context of the time, as well as a glossary of historical terms. Reader, rest assured: cultural glosses apart, you are in for compelling storytelling. Anguished love, cunning plots, witty jokes, and salivating recipes will make your journey memorable—which will all, hopefully, will make you read more Uzbek literature!” —Filip Noubel, Asymptote
Christopher Fort holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan and an MA in Russian Area Studies from The Ohio State University. He is also the translator of Uzbek author Isajon Sulton’s The Eternal Wanderer.