The first compelling voice in literary fiction to emerge from the Chechen War.
I Am a Chechen! offers a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories of Chechnya: a land of wondrous beauty, site of genocides past and present, and the author’s ancestral home.
Haunted by memories of the land he deserted, Sadulaev tells the stories of those who stayed behind. He brings to life his friends – now reduced to pieces of flesh – revisiting their first loves, their passion for rock music, their quests for martyrdom. And he immerses us in the intoxicating beauty of his homeland’s mountains, blossoms and the flocks of migratory swallows that fill its skies.
I Am a Chechen! is an intensely personal journey through the carnage of the war, exploring the pain, the challenge, and above all the meaning of being a Chechen.
Author ProfileGerman Sadulaev was born in 1973 and grew up in the Chechen village of Shali. At sixteen, before the start of the first Chechen war, he left to study law in St Petersburg. He lives there now. He is the author of five books, of which
I Am a Chechen! is the second. Sadulaev’s work makes highly uncomfortable reading for those in power, and has unleashed heated debate in Russia; it has been shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize, twice for the National Bestseller award, and has won the Eureka Prize.
ReviewsBeautiful and terrible … Like any truly talented work of art, it leaves its imprint on the soul,This is the most important book written on the war in Chechnya. On Chechnya in general. On war in general
