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A review by auroralibrialis
The Light and the Dark by Mikhail Shishkin, Andrew Bromfield
5.0
Written as a series of letters between a Russian woman and her lover who's gone to war. The war in question is the Boxer Rebellion, but the way this is written, it could be any war or every war.
Shishkins prose is beautiful, very poetic and descriptive. It leaves you with an overwhelmingly strong sense of place. You can hear the thunder, smell the bodies, feel the heat. A very good contrast to the increasing feeling that these events are taking place somewhere outside of time.
His letters describe the horrors of war and are very much anchored in the physical realities of bodies. He writes about the horrible injuries and brutal deaths that he witnesses, the diseases, the thirst and the unbearable heat that plagues the soldiers. Death is ever-present, but there is also hope and love and laughter.
Her letters to him are drenched in nostalgia and longing. She writes about her daily life in Russia, her hopes and disappointments, her childhood memories and her relationship with her parents. She sees death as well, but it is a different kind, not violent and sudden, but painful and slow.
Gradually it becomes clear that she is growing up, growing older. While he seems to be suspended in time. She sees a newspaper and there is "war on the front-page and a crossword on the back", this observation is repeated, a detail which serves to highlight the fact that while the people live their lives, grow old and reach their ends, the wars do not. The wars remain constant and never-ending.
The Light and the Dark is a powerful and beautiful novel that made me think. Will definitely be coming back to this author at some point.
Shishkins prose is beautiful, very poetic and descriptive. It leaves you with an overwhelmingly strong sense of place. You can hear the thunder, smell the bodies, feel the heat. A very good contrast to the increasing feeling that these events are taking place somewhere outside of time.
His letters describe the horrors of war and are very much anchored in the physical realities of bodies. He writes about the horrible injuries and brutal deaths that he witnesses, the diseases, the thirst and the unbearable heat that plagues the soldiers. Death is ever-present, but there is also hope and love and laughter.
Her letters to him are drenched in nostalgia and longing. She writes about her daily life in Russia, her hopes and disappointments, her childhood memories and her relationship with her parents. She sees death as well, but it is a different kind, not violent and sudden, but painful and slow.
Gradually it becomes clear that she is growing up, growing older. While he seems to be suspended in time. She sees a newspaper and there is "war on the front-page and a crossword on the back", this observation is repeated, a detail which serves to highlight the fact that while the people live their lives, grow old and reach their ends, the wars do not. The wars remain constant and never-ending.
The Light and the Dark is a powerful and beautiful novel that made me think. Will definitely be coming back to this author at some point.