Путь через века. Кн. 1. Потерянный рай

XXI vek. Chelovek prosypaetsi͡a v peshchere pod Beĭrutom, brodit po gorodu, razmyshli͡aet ob utrachennoĭ li͡ubvi, chelovecheskoĭ nature i t͡siklichnosti Istorii, pishet vospominanii͡a o svoeĭ zhizni.Ėpokha neolita. Chelovek zhivet v derevne na beregu Ozera, mechtaet o samoĭ prekrasnoĭ zhenshchine svoego ne ochenʹ bolʹshogo mira, buntuet protiv ott͡sa, skryvaetsi͡a v lesakh, stanovitsi͡a vozhdem i t͡selitelem, pytaetsi͡a spasti rodnoe plemi͡a ot neodolimoĭ katastrofy Vsemirnogo potopa.Ėpokhi raznye. Chelovek odin i tot zhe. On ne stareet i ne umiraet; on uspel povidatʹ nemalo ėpokh i v kazhdoĭ ishchet svoi͡u neveroi͡atnui͡u vozli͡ublennui͡u - edinstvennui͡u na vse ėti beskonechnye veka.K filosofsko-romanticheskomu ėpiku o tom, kak chelovek prokhodit naskvozʹ vsi͡u mirovui͡u istorii͡u, Ėrik-Ėmmani͡uėlʹ Shmitt podstupalsi͡a 30 let. I vot nakonet͡s "Poteri͡annyĭ raĭ" - pervyĭ tom grandioznoĭ sagi, v kotoroĭ bessmertnomu t͡seliteli͡u Noamu eshche predstoit uvidetʹ i Vavilonskoe t͡sarstvo, i Drevni͡ui͡u Gret͡sii͡u, i Renessans, i industrialʹnui͡u revoli͡ut͡sii͡u. Bessmertie prevrashchaet cheloveka v vechnogo izgnannika i nadeli͡aet ostrym vzgli͡adom: Noam smotrit na veshchi pod ochenʹ osobym uglom, i ego golos prevrashchaet khaos Istorii v stroĭnui͡u istorii͡u khaosa, gde neizbezhny glupostʹ i zhestokostʹ, no vsegda naĭdetsi͡a mesto mudrosti i li͡ubvi.

XXI century. A person wakes up in a cave near Beirut, wanders around the city, reflects on lost love, human nature and the cyclical nature of History, writes memories of his life.The Neolithic era. A man lives in a village on the shore of a Lake, dreams of the most beautiful woman of his not very big world, rebels against his father, hides in the woods, becomes a leader and healer, tries to save his native tribe from the irresistible catastrophe of the Flood.The epochs are different. The person is the same. He does not age and does not die; he has managed to see many epochs and in each he is looking for his incredible beloved — the only one for all these endless centuries.Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt has been approaching the philosophical-romantic epic about how a person goes through the whole world history for 30 years. And finally, Paradise Lost is the first volume of a grandiose saga in which the immortal healer Noam has yet to see the Babylonian Kingdom, Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution. Immortality turns a person into an eternal exile and gives a sharp look: Noam looks at things from a very special angle, and his voice turns the chaos of History into a harmonious history of chaos, where stupidity and cruelty are inevitable, but there will always be a place for wisdom and love.