The Railway (Russian: Железная дорога) is one of the more famous novels by Hamid Ismailov. The book was originally written before he left Uzbekistan and was translated into English by Robert Chandler and published in 2006. A Russian edition was published in Moscow in 1997 under the pseudonym Altaer Magdi (Russian: Алтаэр Магди).
Contents
Plot
The novel is plotted in Gilas, a fictitious small town on the ancient Silk Route in Uzbekistan. The heart of the novel and the town is a railway station, which sets the connection between the town and the greater world. Gilas has people from all over - Armenians, Kurds, Persians, Ukrainians, Jews, Chechens, Koreans, gypsies, Russians etc and the novel tells the stories of some of them. The book describes the dramatic changes that was felt in the Central Asia in early twentieth century.
Characters
Mefody-Jurisprudence -an alcoholic intellectual
Father Loann -a Russian priest
Kara-Musayev the younger-the chief of Police
Umarali-Moneybags -an old moneylender