The Blue Sky: A Novel (Seedbank)

Using the point of view of Dshurukuwaa, a young Tuvan boy living in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the 1940s, the author tells a coming-of-age story (the first volume of a trilogy) which is clearly his personal story, as he observes the growth of the outside influences which are just beginning to affect the Tuvans' isolated nomadic culture. The boy is very much a little boy, always acting "in the minute," reacting to daily events with all the passion of a child, and the author, Galsan Tschinag, is able to communicate the boy's feelings to a foreign audience in ways which make the Tuvan culture both understandable and unforgettable.The author himself grew up in family of Tuvan herders, living in collapsible yurts on the steppes and migrating to different locations as the family followed the seasons. His life, however, changed dramatically while he was still a child. The Russians occupied "his" lands, sending the author out of the steppes and into school, eventually sending him to Leipzig, where he attended university and eventually received his doctorate. "I have been a gatherer, hunter, and herder; a school boy, a university student and a professor; a trade union journalist [and] a shadow politician..." the author says. Today, probably in his seventies, and moving between Mongolia and Europe, he continues, "I am the chieftain of a tribe, a healer, an author [who writes in German], a father, and a grandfather."Tied completely to nature and constantly moving with the seasons, the little boy and his family look for omens, and trust in Gok-Deeri, the god of the blue sky. His life changes dramatically with the arrival of his grandmother, "the warming sun at the beginning of my life" (to whom the author dedicates this book). An old woman with a shaved head, she is now alone, her husband having been killed by the Russians and her son killed by the Kazakhs, and she dedicates her life to the boy. During her absence one day, however, Dshurukuwaa has a terrible accident, for which she blames herself, killing for her, the "glimmer of hope...that she might leave behind somebody on this earth who would remember her fondly and benefit from her efforts."The grandmother's stories and their lessons, the activities of their daily lives, the occasional amusements, and folk wisdom regarding healing and health all emerge in this story about this hard-working family totally responsible for all its own needs. The contrasts between the boy's family and the families of their more "modern" relatives show the unfortunate effects of outside influences - socialism, mandatory education, trade with the outside world, and the introduction of currency to business transactions, especially in transactions with the Russians. A terrible winter, the worst in memory, forces the boy and his family to deal with disasters they could not have foreseen, and as the book comes to its close (to be continued in the second volume of the trilogy, The Gray Earth), the boy is wailing at the Blue Sky, begging to die and screaming his disbelief in a benevolent god. A stunning and important memoir, which memorializes a culture which is in the process of changing.

Charming story about the bond between a young Shepard boy and his grandmother, whilst he continues the nomadic way of life, which is approaching the huge changes, as modern life and Socialsm begin to alter the old ways. A well told story from the child's perspective.

A little tragedy, a child's tragedy. Act One of three, not on his life but on his youth. He must be under eight in this, since at eight children are sent to school, that is to indoctrination, with which The Gray Earth is concerned. The White Mountain tells how this "double life" cracked him up as an adolescent. In his afterword he says, "Both of the latter books contain stories more tragic than those in The Blue Sky, but since the art of survival is strong among nomads, some primordial serenity hovers above everything. I survived and was preserved for that small, vanishing remainder of my people [Tuvan] for whom each member is vital. By the end of the trilogy I arrived in the wider world..."This first is short and events are common, but nomad life in the Altai is richly portrayed and the writing's rich too, the writing keeps you happy. His family takes in an old woman who has lost her yurt and flock, her means to live. He falls into a vat of boiling milk and they try to heal his skin with 25-year-old bear fat. His uncles and aunts quarrel about whether to go with new trends and officials from town or against them. There is a terrible spring with a desperate struggle to save the animals.A herder needs to have `a heart for his animals', and after Grandma - the old woman - we see most about the boy's interaction with animals. I felt there was a note of tragedy in the failures of cross-species communication, and yet the love in spite of that. It might be that the boy is left more alone than normal (in the past), once the officials haul the camp's children to town school and the family splits up. The adults don't understand his attachment to his dog. I found the end gut-wrenching, when the events of his short life have piled up and the child, under eight, protests against the way of the world. I think it's great as a child's perspective: he's ignorant but he isn't naïve, and I recognised several moments.

Good book, told from the inside of a herder family's life. This is Mongolia, the way people lived it, when the Soviets entered their lives too. I will read the sequels because this first book covers childhood only. Written as a child's point of view.

As a person interested in Mongolian culture, I was captured by this read. It is the first of a trilogy and I plan to read the next, The Grey Earth, soon. The interaction of the Steppe people with the natural world is compelling and places the reader in the midst of this beautiful and sometimes tragic environment.

A beautiful and moving book about a young boy from nomadic background. Even though I am a Mongolian, I am touched by how nomadic people work hard in order to survive in the harsh climate of steppe, and how children learn to help herding stuffs from the very young age. It also prescribes their belief in Sky and how they live in a harmony with Mother nature, and how they respect elders.

I enjoyed this book because of its first person point of view and the portrait of rural famiy life in Mongolia.

This a sad and lovely story. Slow paced, but easy read. Can't wait to read the second book.