Novel
The Tale of Aypi
Aýpi hakyndaky rowaýat
Ak Welsapar · 1988
Synopsis
At the end of the Soviet era, a Turkmen fishing village on the Caspian coast is to be evacuated to make way for a sanatorium. The authorities try to make it look as though the inhabitants are leaving of their own free will; but Araz Atayev, attached to the land of his ancestors, refuses to leave. Over the village hangs the legend of Aypi, a young woman unjustly put to death centuries ago, whose ghost returns to take revenge on the men.
Context
Dated 1988, the novel belongs to a body of work the Turkmen regime has banned: the author's books have been removed from libraries and burned, and can only be read in secret in his country. Published in Russian in 2014, it was translated into English by W. M. Coulson and published in London by Glagoslav in 2016. Mystical forces and power relations, like those of nature, feed its tension. It has not been translated into French.
Who it is for
For discovering, between legend and satire of Soviet power, a Turkmen voice silenced in its own country.
Prizes and reception
The Swedish version received a cultural prize in 2016; the Calvert Journal hailed the first English translation of a Turkmen author.