Jamilia

Jamilia’s husband is off fighting at the front. She spends her days hauling sacks of grain from the threshing floor to the train station in their small village, accompanied by Seit, her brother-in-law, and Daniyar, a sullen newcomer who has been wounded in the war and has barely spoken since he arrived. Seit, too young to fight himself, looks on as the beautiful, spirited Jamilia spurns men’s advances and winces at the dispassionate letters she receives from her husband. Meanwhile, undeterred by Jamilia’s teasing, Daniyar sings as they return each evening from the fields. As the summer unfolds, Jamilia and Daniyar grow closer, while the war on the Soviet front drags on. Against the vast landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, Jamilia is a luminous classic of Central Asian literature: a story of love, freedom and the irresistible pull of another life.