Сверстники

Glukhie lesa Floridy, 1870‑e gody. Bolota, sosny, gremuchie zmei i medvedi. Dozhdi, kotorye mogut idti nedeli͡ami, i zasukhi, sposobnye szhechʹ vse posevy. Zdesʹ, na klochke zemli, otvoëvannom u dikoĭ prirody, kotoryĭ semʹi͡a Baksterov nazyvaet "Ostrovom", zhivët dvenadt͡satiletniĭ Dzhodi. Ego mir - rabota ot rassveta do zakata i redkie vechera, kogda ustavshiĭ otet͡s rasskazyvaet istorii u ochaga…Ėto kniga o vzroslenii, o surovoĭ pravde byta amerikanskikh fermerov‑skvatterov i o nastoi͡ashcheĭ muzhskoĭ druzhbe mezhdu ott͡som i synom. No glavnoe - ėto trogatelʹnai͡a istorii͡a li͡ubvi dvukh sverstnikov: malʹchika, kotoromu ne khvataet brata i tovarishcha, i osirotevshego olenënka, kotorogo Dzhodi vykarmlivaet i rastit kak samogo blizkogo druga. Zdesʹ net mesta lzhi, net kheppi‑ėnda, volshebnogo spasenii͡a v posledni͡ui͡u sekundu… Estʹ tolʹko zhestokai͡a pravda prirody: esli khocheshʹ zhitʹ - ubivaĭ. Esli li͡ubishʹ - otpuskaĭ. I inogda to, chto ty li͡ubishʹ bolʹshe vsego na svete, dolzhno umeretʹ, chtoby ty sam vyzhil. Imenno za ėtu pravdivostʹ i shchemi͡ashchui͡u trogatelʹnostʹ proizvedenie vysoko ot͡senil Ėrnest Kheminguėĭ, a v 1939 godu ono bylo udostoeno Pulitt͡serovskoĭ premii.

The backwoods of Florida, 1870s. Swamps, pine trees, rattlesnakes and bears. Rains that can last for weeks, and droughts that can burn all crops. Twelve-year-old Jody lives here on a piece of land reclaimed from the wild, which the Baxter family calls "The Island." His world consists of working from dawn to dusk and rare evenings when a tired father tells stories by the hearth.…This is a book about growing up, about the harsh truth of the life of American squatter farmers and about the true male friendship between father and son. But the main thing is a touching love story of two peers: a boy who lacks a brother and companion, and an orphaned fawn, whom Jody feeds and raises as her closest friend. There is no place for lies, no happy ending, no last‑second magic escape... there is only the cruel truth of nature: if you want to live, kill. If you love, let go. And sometimes what you love most in the world has to die in order for you to survive. It was for this truthfulness and poignant touching that Ernest Hemingway highly appreciated the work, and in 1939 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.