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Abbas nikogda ne govoril o svoem proshlom. O tom, chto bylo do togo, kak on stal mori͡akom. Do togo, kak vstretil li͡ubimui͡u zhenshchinu Mariam. Do togo, kak zazhil spokoĭnoĭ zhiznʹi͡u. Vse ėto "do" okutano mrachnym molchaniem. Zhena i deti ustali zadavatʹ voprosy. No teperʹ, posle perenesennogo insulʹta, on prikovan k posteli. I nastupilo vremi͡a rasskazatʹ, chto zhe proizoshlo i pochemu on molchal. Novyĭ roman angliĭskogo pisateli͡a tanzaniĭskogo proiskhozhdenii͡a Abdulrazaka Gurny - nobelevskogo laureata po literature 2021 goda. On oshchushchal ustalostʹ, ukhodi͡a s raboty, - takai͡a ustalostʹ, byvalo, navalivalasʹ na nego v kont͡se dni͡a, a v poslednie gody vse chashche: khotelosʹ sestʹ i nichego ne delatʹ, poka slabostʹ ne proĭdet ili chʹi-nibudʹ silʹnye ruki ne podnimut ego i ne dostavi͡at domoĭ. Oblozhka s klapanami s perforat͡sieĭ na odnom klapane (otryvnai͡a zakladka). Chem starshe on stanovilsi͡a, tem bolee detskimi kazalisʹ inogda ego zhelanii͡a. Chem dolʹshe on zhil, tem blizhe pridvigalosʹ ego detstvo i vse menʹshe kazalosʹ dalekoĭ fantazieĭ o chʹeĭ-to chuzhoĭ zhizni. Chitateli intellektualʹnoĭ literatury, kotorye nakhodi͡atsi͡a v teme mirovoĭ povestki, sledi͡at za novosti͡ami i raznymi mnenii͡ami. "Esli perestaneshʹ tak uporno soprotivli͡atʹsi͡a, zhiznʹ mozhet bytʹ vpolne terpimoĭ", - sheptal on ott͡su, no ne znal, verit li v ėto sam. Pochemu otet͡s ne sdelal v zhizni bolʹshe? Pochemu ne zakhotel bolʹshego? No tak li malo on sdelal, tak li uzh malo ot nee khotel? Vedʹ ne tak uzh ėto malo - provesti stolʹko let v terpelivom molchanii, znai͡a, chto odnazhdy zhiznʹ obrushitsi͡a.

Abbas has never talked about his past. About what happened before he became a sailor. Before I met the woman I love, Mariam. Before he lived a quiet life. All this "before" is shrouded in gloomy silence. My wife and children are tired of asking questions. But now, after suffering a stroke, he is bedridden. And the time has come to tell us what happened and why he was silent. A new novel by the Tanzanian—born English writer Abdulrazak Gurna, the 2021 Nobel Laureate in Literature. He felt tired when he left work— such fatigue used to pile on him at the end of the day, and in recent years more and more often: he wanted to sit down and do nothing until the weakness passed or someone's strong arms lifted him up and took him home. Flap cover with perforation on one flap (tear-off bookmark). The older he got, the more childish his desires sometimes seemed. The longer he lived, the closer his childhood got, and it seemed less and less like a distant fantasy about someone else's life. Readers of intellectual literature who are on the topic of the global agenda follow the news and various opinions. "If you stop resisting so stubbornly, life can be quite bearable," he whispered to his father, but he didn't know if he believed it himself. Why didn't my father do more in his life? Why didn't you want more? But had he done so little, had he wanted so little from her? It's not a small thing to spend so many years in patient silence, knowing that one day life will collapse.