Novel
Golden Hill
Алтан овоо
Mend-Ooyo Gombojav · 1993
Synopsis
The book starts from the author's childhood in the Dariganga, in south-eastern Mongolia, around the sacred hill of Altan Ovoo, where his father takes him as a child. It mixes family memories and the life of the nomads, their sorrows and their joys, the history and customs of the country, dreams, magic and the power of words, tales of people and animals, and legends, including an account of origins; the hill itself is linked to the memory of Genghis Khan.
Context
Written for the most part before 1989, when the country was emerging from the communist regime, the book was published in 1993 at the author's expense, in Ulaanbaatar, and went through five editions up to 2010. Its author presents it as an almanac; Mongolian critics have seen in it sacred writing, a heroic narrative or a novel, which blends myth, tale, meditation, poetry and memoirs. Simon Wickham-Smith published an English translation in 2007, reissued in 2012, and devoted a study to it in 2013, published by Edwin Mellen.
Who it is for
A book in Mongolian, between prose and poetry, which can be read in English since 2007 but not in French.
Prizes and reception
For the Mongolist Maria Petrova, the hill becomes in it a world mountain linking earth and sky; S. Erdene hears in it a true song of the native land.
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