Take a photo of a barcode or cover
oleksandr 's review for:
The Carpet Makers
by Andreas Eschbach
This is a soft SF written as a series of linked stories by [a:Andreas Eschbach|40381|Andreas Eschbach|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200336594p2/40381.jpg], a SF author from Germany. I read it as a part of monthly reading for August 2021 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group.
The story starts in a strange world, which a reader initially cannot place: there is a carpet maker, his several wives and a son. The maker is already old and trembling, but he has to finish his work – a carpet from hair of his wives that will go to the Emperor’s palace, just like his father did before him and his son should do after him. However, his son, influenced from outside the house is unsure is there still the Emperor, and should he spend his whole life just like his father has done?
The stories like hairs in the carpet are linked with one another as readers see ever larger tapestry – the carpet makers and their traditions, carpet traders, tax collectors, ordinary folk whose labor support that trade and unordinary people who try to understand the whole mystery, for with all these carpets over generations there should be no place for them in the Emperor’s palace.
This is definitely an unusual story, alluding greatly to spiritual texts, which try to describe how a person can be so devoted that they leave problems of material world behind trying to reach a higher goal. There are almost no dialogues, the story is given as a wall of text, which can be a sign of German literature in general, for similar structure can be seen e.g. in [a:Hermann Hesse|1113469|Hermann Hesse|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1499981916p2/1113469.jpg] works. Long paragraphs in no way mean boring, the story grabs and holds the reader.
The story starts in a strange world, which a reader initially cannot place: there is a carpet maker, his several wives and a son. The maker is already old and trembling, but he has to finish his work – a carpet from hair of his wives that will go to the Emperor’s palace, just like his father did before him and his son should do after him. However, his son, influenced from outside the house is unsure is there still the Emperor, and should he spend his whole life just like his father has done?
The stories like hairs in the carpet are linked with one another as readers see ever larger tapestry – the carpet makers and their traditions, carpet traders, tax collectors, ordinary folk whose labor support that trade and unordinary people who try to understand the whole mystery, for with all these carpets over generations there should be no place for them in the Emperor’s palace.
This is definitely an unusual story, alluding greatly to spiritual texts, which try to describe how a person can be so devoted that they leave problems of material world behind trying to reach a higher goal. There are almost no dialogues, the story is given as a wall of text, which can be a sign of German literature in general, for similar structure can be seen e.g. in [a:Hermann Hesse|1113469|Hermann Hesse|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1499981916p2/1113469.jpg] works. Long paragraphs in no way mean boring, the story grabs and holds the reader.