Novel
Earth and Ashes
خاکستر و خاک
Atiq Rahimi · 2000
Synopsis
In Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, old Dastaguir waits with his grandson Yassin, near a guard post, for the truck that is to take them to the coal mine where his son works. Their village has just been bombed: they are its only survivors, and the boy, deafened by the explosions, believes the soldiers have carried off people's voices. During this long wait, the old man relives the days gone by and searches for a way to tell his son of the disaster.
Context
The author's first book, written in Persian, it first appeared in French, in 2000, from P.O.L, in Sabrina Nouri's translation. In some sixty pages and a sober, restrained second-person narration, it gives voice to the grief of a family destroyed by the Soviet invasion, with echoes of the Persian epic. Translated into English in 2002 as Earth and Ashes, it was made by Rahimi into a film in 2004, awarded the Prix du Regard vers l'avenir in the Un Certain Regard section. It also inspired an opera by Jérôme Combier, premiered in Lyon in 2012.
Who it is for
For a short tale, deeply sober, about the grief and silence that war leaves to the survivors.
Prizes and reception
Reissued in paperback by Folio in 2010, it was adapted for the cinema by the author and won an award at the Cannes festival in 2004.