A review by andrew61
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov

5.0

This is an astonishing novella which at 122 pages is full of lyricism and poetry, traditional tales, music and the modern day horror of nuclear testing. An intro tells the reader that from 1949 to 1989 468 nuclear explosions were tested in a test site in the Kazakh steppes. This story tells of Yerzhan a 27 year old man who looks like a 12 year old boy whom the narrator meets on a train selling yoghurt and playing his violin. He then tells the story of his and his families exposure to nuclear radiation. Part folk tale with magical elements it has a love story within it and a picture of the traditions of the Steppes. An excellent read giving a snapshot of a region the size of Europe devastated by nuclear testing. Yerzhan is a interesting hero who like Oscar in The Tin Drum is a man in the body of a child who in a chilling scene has bathed in the Dead Lake of the title, his love interest Aisulu who lives with the family next to his in two isolated huts on the side of the remote railway is also affected. I would recommend this book and given its length I am tempted to read it again before it goes back to the library.