As longtime readers know, I frequently complain that Central Asia remains one of the most ignored of literary areas -- but promisingly they just held the Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literary Festival (less promisingly: I only heard about it after the fact ...).
At eTN Agha Iqrar Haroon reports that Central Asia's first international Literature Festival concluded; see also the official press release (which, in Russian, is apparently transliterated way too phonetically as a пресс-релиз (even in the URL ...)).
You have to admire a book festival that includes in its list of partcipants authors such as Begenas Sartov, who actually died more than three decades ago .....
Nevertheless, I can not recall coveting a book more than I do Sartov's When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish ('including further six short stories' !), launched at the festival as the: "first Kyrgyz fiction novel in English language". Sure, it's a 1960s Soviet work -- but: I want ! (You can try to get you copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)
Clearly, Central Asian fiction is still far from ready for primetime ... but I remain ever-hopeful.
Of course, When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish is a title that's so hard to top they might have all just packed it in back then and there. (Damn, am I eager to get my hands on that book .....)
You have to admire a book festival that includes in its list of partcipants authors such as Begenas Sartov, who actually died more than three decades ago .....
Nevertheless, I can not recall coveting a book more than I do Sartov's When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish ('including further six short stories' !), launched at the festival as the: "first Kyrgyz fiction novel in English language". Sure, it's a 1960s Soviet work -- but: I want ! (You can try to get you copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)
Clearly, Central Asian fiction is still far from ready for primetime ... but I remain ever-hopeful.
Of course, When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish is a title that's so hard to top they might have all just packed it in back then and there. (Damn, am I eager to get my hands on that book .....)