Сверстники

Glukhye lesa Florydy, 1870‑e gody. Bolota, sosny, gremuchye zmey y medvedy. Dozhdy, kotorye mogut ydty nedelyamy, y zasukhy, sposobnye szhech vse posevy. Zdes, na klochke zemly, otvoyovannom u dykoy pryrody, kotoryy semya Baksterov nazyvaet «Ostrovom», zhyvyot dvenadtsatyletnyy Dzhody. Ego myr — rabota ot rassveta do zakata y redkye vechera, kogda ustavshyy otets rasskazyvaet ystoryy u ochaga…Eto knyga o vzroslenyy, o surovoy pravde byta amerykanskykh fermerov‑skvatterov y o nastoyashchey muzhskoy druzhbe mezhdu ottsom y synom. No glavnoe — eto trogatelnaya ystoryya lyubvy dvukh sverstnykov: malchyka, kotoromu ne khvataet brata y tovaryshcha, y osyrotevshego olenyonka, kotorogo Dzhody vykarmlyvaet y rastyt kak samogo blyzkogo druga. Zdes net mesta lzhy, net kheppy‑enda, volshebnogo spasenyya v poslednyuyu sekundu… Est tolko zhestokaya pravda pryrody: esly khochesh zhyt — ubyvay. Esly lyubysh — otpuskay. Y ynogda to, chto ty lyubysh bolshe vsego na svete, dolzhno umeret, chtoby ty sam vyzhyl. Ymenno za etu pravdyvost y shchemyashchuyu trogatelnost proyzvedenye vysoko otsenyl Ernest Khemynguey, a v 1939 godu ono bylo udostoeno Pulyttserovskoy premyy.

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.