I finally got a copy of this book! It has only taken 4 months to get one and that is ok. In fact when I went to Powell’s where I get my books from and got this one from it was gone. There is not a link for it.
The Dream of Death by Vagif Sultanly is a short book that deals with death, but not in the way that one would think.
The book starts out with a man on a bulldozer building a road. As he follows his path he realizes that it goes right through a graveyard. He is haunted, torn and conflicted by what he has to do here. The people of the town are given leave by the government to relocate the graves of their loved and unloved ones. In moving the graves we read of the secrets of the village. There is old Halima, who’s son buried by the government finds something that breaks her mind. Alish, who was resurrected. Yolchu and Pari and the second loss of the baby. Then there is the dog, who in grieving moves the only person who loved him.
The language of this book is lyrical and yet to the point. It is not dreams that this book focuses on but death. Death is a character that effects everyone and everything in here. I would like to know what was going on in Mr. Sultanly’s life at the time he wrote this.
QUOTES
“He doesn’t know that each creature has only one way directed to the grave; and each persons last address is a cemetery.”
“In any case life is a lie and falsehood for many people.”
“She felt sunset in her spirit, watching the daybreak.”
Reading The World 