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Жених и невеста
Runner-up for 2015 Russian Booker Prize.
From one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, comes Bride and Groom, the tumultuous love story of two young city-dwellers who meet when they return home to their families in rural Dagestan. When traditional family expectations and increasing religious and cultural tension threaten to shatter their bond, Marat and Patya struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, while fate seems destined to keep them together—until the very end.
From one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, comes Bride and Groom, the tumultuous love story of two young city-dwellers who meet when they return home to their families in rural Dagestan. When traditional family expectations and increasing religious and cultural tension threaten to shatter their bond, Marat and Patya struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, while fate seems destined to keep them together—until the very end.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2015
11 people are currently reading
584 people want to read
About the author
Alisa Ganieva
11 books46 followersAlisa Ganieva (or Ganiyeva; Russian: Алиса Аркадьевна Ганиева) is a Russian author, writing short prose and essays. In 2009, she was awarded the Debut literary prize for her debut novel Salaam, Dalgat!, published using the pseudonym of Gulla Khirachev.
Ganieva was born in Moscow in an Avar family but moved with her family to Dagestan, where she lived in Gunib and later attended school in Makhachkala. In 2002 she moved back to Moscow and graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. She works as a literary critic for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.
She won the Debut literary prize, the under-25 competition for authors writing in Russian, in 2009 for Salaam, Dalgat!. The identity of the author, who published it pseudonymously, was only discovered at the award ceremony. The novel describes the everyday life of Dagestani youth in the cities and shows the decay of traditional life and their difficult relations with Islam, the traditional religion of Dagestanis. The characters use the "Dagestani Russian", a pidgin version of Russian, to communicate, the first instance when this was presented in a literary work.
In 2012, Ganieva published her second novel, Holiday Mountain, also set in Dagestan. In 2014, it was translated to German. In 2015 the Italian and the american translations came out. The last one published by the Deep Vellum Publishing House (USA) is called "The Mountain And The Wall". Ganieva spoke about the book to the audience of the London bureau of the Voice Of Russia radio.
In April 2015 her new novel "The Bride And The Bridegroom" was released in Russia and is already listed for the major literary awards.
She also published short stories and fairy tales. She has received a number of literary awards for her fiction.
In June 2015 Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most talented and influential young people living in Moscow.[
Ganieva was born in Moscow in an Avar family but moved with her family to Dagestan, where she lived in Gunib and later attended school in Makhachkala. In 2002 she moved back to Moscow and graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. She works as a literary critic for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.
She won the Debut literary prize, the under-25 competition for authors writing in Russian, in 2009 for Salaam, Dalgat!. The identity of the author, who published it pseudonymously, was only discovered at the award ceremony. The novel describes the everyday life of Dagestani youth in the cities and shows the decay of traditional life and their difficult relations with Islam, the traditional religion of Dagestanis. The characters use the "Dagestani Russian", a pidgin version of Russian, to communicate, the first instance when this was presented in a literary work.
In 2012, Ganieva published her second novel, Holiday Mountain, also set in Dagestan. In 2014, it was translated to German. In 2015 the Italian and the american translations came out. The last one published by the Deep Vellum Publishing House (USA) is called "The Mountain And The Wall". Ganieva spoke about the book to the audience of the London bureau of the Voice Of Russia radio.
In April 2015 her new novel "The Bride And The Bridegroom" was released in Russia and is already listed for the major literary awards.
She also published short stories and fairy tales. She has received a number of literary awards for her fiction.
In June 2015 Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most talented and influential young people living in Moscow.[
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January 14, 2019
I had a great time reading Alisa Ganieva's The Mountain and the Wall around Christmas 2015, and so this December I jumped at the chance to read the second of her books to be translated to English. After reading both books, I'm impressed by her genre-hopping skill, each time firmly within a literary mode; the earlier book was dystopian speculative fiction; this is a romance. (Literary romance is not something you see a lot of these days - or maybe the plotlines of the American and British ones I see don't appeal so I don't really think of them that way, just as blah novels about twentysomethings in Brooklyn or wherever.) Both of her books share a recognisable authorial voice, and are packed with details about both modern and traditional life in Dagestan, an area rarely covered in Western English news - which is what I find so fascinating about them - and also know how to create the kind of mood and suspense associated with their respective genres. Introducing tension into the story of a couple whom the reader knows from the start will get together, and making this felt by a reader who would very rarely pick up a romance novel is, IMO, an achievement. How it would seem, though, to regular readers of romance, I can't say.
Most of the novel is set in a community where arranged marriages are the norm, while its hero and heroine Marat and Patya - young Dagestanis who work in Moscow law and have been summoned home by their respective parents for matchmaking - both have a more secular, liberal outlook than others around them, without being outright rebellious. The general process, aside from specific Dagestani customs, will presumably be familiar to people from cultures where arranged marriages are prevalent. A motif of a veiled bride impersonating another, meaning the groom did not marry his intended, also in Orhan Pamuk's A Strangeness in my Mind, occurs in an anecdote told by one relative - I am not sure how common this kind of story or legend is and what that might signify about the originality versus folkloric basis of the novel to someone who knows the culture better. From a Westernised viewpoint the book makes an interesting juxtaposition of attitudes found in novels from very different eras - a contrast the main characters' experience too in living between different worlds and finding ways to fit partly into both. There is work in the legal profession in Moscow, the struggle with discrimination (his long search for a private apartment in Moscow—his non-Russian name had scared off all the landlords) and at the end of a long train journey, there are people like Granny:
the world in which she dwelt had absolutely nothing in common with ours. In her world people still lived in mountaintop castles with flat roofs, divided up the fields and the harvest strictly according to ancient rules, and sent their sons to the villages of conquered neighbors to feast at their expense; after murders they demanded a vow of purging from forty men and exacted fines measured in units of grain, copper kettles, bulls, and sheep. These reminiscences descended into some infinite depth of the ages, and it was impossible to believe that she had ever personally been a part of that strange life
and the less picturesque hometown:
A sudden gust of wind hurled a cloud of steppe dust at us, along with shreds of cardboard boxes that looked like dry crackers, a faint, simple melody from a distant tape player, and the dreary sound of cows mooing.
(Talking of cows, their sound is once transliterated as “Um-bu-u-u-u!” - which sounds so much more like the real thing than the English 'moo'.)
some steppe village surrounded by abandoned oil towers, or a roadside motel with scorpions rustling within its pitted, sunbaked adobe walls.
I've unfortunately only read one other novel focused in a relatively positive way on arranged marriages in a Muslim country, the chick lit-style Tender Hooks aka Duty Free by Moni Mohsin, which, although it contains a lot more about political events than British chicklit would, doesn’t consider issues with the same level of seriousness as Bride and Groom. As in The Mountain and the Wall, the growth of stricter forms of Islam is a significant part of the background - there are tensions in the characters' small home town between a traditional mosque and the newer Wahhabi mosque "on the other side of the tracks" - as is political and legal corruption, both in Moscow and Dagestan. (In a discussion thread about 2018 London novel In Our Mad & Furious City it was pointed out that very few contemporary British and American novels manage to write about Muslims without any plotlines about radicalisation. While it is overdone in English-language literature, from what I can make out about the reality of Dagestan, it sounds as though, there, is far more genuinely prevalent and influential, and more appropriate to include.)
It is a patriarchal culture, but Ganieva indicates that there were also inspiring women in non-traditional roles.
the late Mashidat Zalova, our literature teacher. She had been six feet tall, an old maid, polyglot, and passionate bibliophile… As the daughter of an enemy of the people, she could not be allowed to work in city schools, but our out-of-the-way suburb was no problem. Rumor had it that she had been wooed by Adik’s widowed grandfather, an architect and veteran of the Great Patriotic War… persistent in his attempts but she had foresworn family life and closed herself in with her dusty tomes and folios.
The Mountain and the Wall indicated the change from Soviet propaganda showing women doing work equal to men's, to more recent religious-inflected pressures, but some families in Bride and Groom value the education of intelligent daughters:
We got you into the top school, hired tutors, helped with university, and set you up with an internship. Could I even have dreamed of such a life? I worked from the age of twelve!”
at the same time as pushing them towards marriage and expecting them to take on a substantial share of household chores. One mother is a senior cardiologist - this is a world in which women like her are expected to do it all, work and housework.
The characters' frequent conversations about recently-imprisoned local bigwig and fixer Khalilbek, who is connected, spider-like, to almost everyone, may in theory be repetitive, but I thought it a realistic impression of how frequently people in a small community would talk about a recent major event. (Some authors might vary the topics more for the sake of it, even if that meant less verisimilitude). The Afterword - which I wish I'd read at the beginning, rather than when I was ¾ of the way through the book - sheds light on the religious conflicts, on Khalilbek and on recurring motifs, by explaining how Ganieva incorporated Sufism into the novel. (The connection she makes between Khidr, Musa/Moses and the Green Man is intriguing but instinctively looks to me like a stretch.) She mentions that there areallusions to Sufi poetry in the text; as I don't know these works myself I can't say how well the references come through in the English translation - but it would be very interesting to read a review of Bride and Groom by someone who has a good knowledge of these texts and of similar cultures.
Unlike The Mountain and the Wall, Bride and Groom doesn't have a glossary. In a way it could do with one - although there were benefits to looking stuff up online: watching videos of the dance the Lezginka, and seeing pictures and articles about the food (there is lots of food in this book, as you might expect from a story about weddings and visits to traditional relatives) and learning more about it, for example that adjika can be considered to be to Russians what salsa is to Americans, and that the Russian equivalent word for spicy also includes flavours such as garlic and vinegar as well as chilli (which makes more sense to me than the English). There are many details that connect regardless of notes: the almost perverse lack of glamour of modern psychics and fortune tellers; the reminiscences of grandparents with a tone familiar to anyone whose family had rural roots only a couple of generations back; parents who bicker in a way familiar from old TV shows.
Ganieva is one to read especially if you enjoy using novels for armchair tourism - in this case to an intriguing area very few people visit in person, due to long-term travel warnings.
(December 2018)
Most of the novel is set in a community where arranged marriages are the norm, while its hero and heroine Marat and Patya - young Dagestanis who work in Moscow law and have been summoned home by their respective parents for matchmaking - both have a more secular, liberal outlook than others around them, without being outright rebellious. The general process, aside from specific Dagestani customs, will presumably be familiar to people from cultures where arranged marriages are prevalent. A motif of a veiled bride impersonating another, meaning the groom did not marry his intended, also in Orhan Pamuk's A Strangeness in my Mind, occurs in an anecdote told by one relative - I am not sure how common this kind of story or legend is and what that might signify about the originality versus folkloric basis of the novel to someone who knows the culture better. From a Westernised viewpoint the book makes an interesting juxtaposition of attitudes found in novels from very different eras - a contrast the main characters' experience too in living between different worlds and finding ways to fit partly into both. There is work in the legal profession in Moscow, the struggle with discrimination (his long search for a private apartment in Moscow—his non-Russian name had scared off all the landlords) and at the end of a long train journey, there are people like Granny:
the world in which she dwelt had absolutely nothing in common with ours. In her world people still lived in mountaintop castles with flat roofs, divided up the fields and the harvest strictly according to ancient rules, and sent their sons to the villages of conquered neighbors to feast at their expense; after murders they demanded a vow of purging from forty men and exacted fines measured in units of grain, copper kettles, bulls, and sheep. These reminiscences descended into some infinite depth of the ages, and it was impossible to believe that she had ever personally been a part of that strange life
and the less picturesque hometown:
A sudden gust of wind hurled a cloud of steppe dust at us, along with shreds of cardboard boxes that looked like dry crackers, a faint, simple melody from a distant tape player, and the dreary sound of cows mooing.
(Talking of cows, their sound is once transliterated as “Um-bu-u-u-u!” - which sounds so much more like the real thing than the English 'moo'.)
some steppe village surrounded by abandoned oil towers, or a roadside motel with scorpions rustling within its pitted, sunbaked adobe walls.
I've unfortunately only read one other novel focused in a relatively positive way on arranged marriages in a Muslim country, the chick lit-style Tender Hooks aka Duty Free by Moni Mohsin, which, although it contains a lot more about political events than British chicklit would, doesn’t consider issues with the same level of seriousness as Bride and Groom. As in The Mountain and the Wall, the growth of stricter forms of Islam is a significant part of the background - there are tensions in the characters' small home town between a traditional mosque and the newer Wahhabi mosque "on the other side of the tracks" - as is political and legal corruption, both in Moscow and Dagestan. (In a discussion thread about 2018 London novel In Our Mad & Furious City it was pointed out that very few contemporary British and American novels manage to write about Muslims without any plotlines about radicalisation. While it is overdone in English-language literature, from what I can make out about the reality of Dagestan, it sounds as though, there, is far more genuinely prevalent and influential, and more appropriate to include.)
It is a patriarchal culture, but Ganieva indicates that there were also inspiring women in non-traditional roles.
the late Mashidat Zalova, our literature teacher. She had been six feet tall, an old maid, polyglot, and passionate bibliophile… As the daughter of an enemy of the people, she could not be allowed to work in city schools, but our out-of-the-way suburb was no problem. Rumor had it that she had been wooed by Adik’s widowed grandfather, an architect and veteran of the Great Patriotic War… persistent in his attempts but she had foresworn family life and closed herself in with her dusty tomes and folios.
The Mountain and the Wall indicated the change from Soviet propaganda showing women doing work equal to men's, to more recent religious-inflected pressures, but some families in Bride and Groom value the education of intelligent daughters:
We got you into the top school, hired tutors, helped with university, and set you up with an internship. Could I even have dreamed of such a life? I worked from the age of twelve!”
at the same time as pushing them towards marriage and expecting them to take on a substantial share of household chores. One mother is a senior cardiologist - this is a world in which women like her are expected to do it all, work and housework.
The characters' frequent conversations about recently-imprisoned local bigwig and fixer Khalilbek, who is connected, spider-like, to almost everyone, may in theory be repetitive, but I thought it a realistic impression of how frequently people in a small community would talk about a recent major event. (Some authors might vary the topics more for the sake of it, even if that meant less verisimilitude). The Afterword - which I wish I'd read at the beginning, rather than when I was ¾ of the way through the book - sheds light on the religious conflicts, on Khalilbek and on recurring motifs, by explaining how Ganieva incorporated Sufism into the novel. (The connection she makes between Khidr, Musa/Moses and the Green Man is intriguing but instinctively looks to me like a stretch.) She mentions that there areallusions to Sufi poetry in the text; as I don't know these works myself I can't say how well the references come through in the English translation - but it would be very interesting to read a review of Bride and Groom by someone who has a good knowledge of these texts and of similar cultures.
Unlike The Mountain and the Wall, Bride and Groom doesn't have a glossary. In a way it could do with one - although there were benefits to looking stuff up online: watching videos of the dance the Lezginka, and seeing pictures and articles about the food (there is lots of food in this book, as you might expect from a story about weddings and visits to traditional relatives) and learning more about it, for example that adjika can be considered to be to Russians what salsa is to Americans, and that the Russian equivalent word for spicy also includes flavours such as garlic and vinegar as well as chilli (which makes more sense to me than the English). There are many details that connect regardless of notes: the almost perverse lack of glamour of modern psychics and fortune tellers; the reminiscences of grandparents with a tone familiar to anyone whose family had rural roots only a couple of generations back; parents who bicker in a way familiar from old TV shows.
Ganieva is one to read especially if you enjoy using novels for armchair tourism - in this case to an intriguing area very few people visit in person, due to long-term travel warnings.
(December 2018)
July 24, 2019
I had such high hopes. A Russian writer who can skewer Moscow hipsterdom (including stereotypes about Islam) and then turn the same incisive wit on Dagestani courtship traditions and political corruption is a force to be reckoned with. And much of the book is funny and fierce, coming from the alternating perspectives of Patya (female) and Marat (male), smart young Dagestanis who have spent time in Moscow, and who are too modern for Central Asian customs yet too sensible to be lured into the urban Russian malaise. In the early going, my principal concern was that the romance was removing obstacles with entirely too much ease and speed. And then the final veers wildly toward a more serious, disturbing direction--resolved at the end by an author's note that links the whole entire thing, including a character who spends most of the novel as what appears to be a caricature of a Central Asian strongman, to Sufism. I am a sucker for literature from offbeat places, but I like coherent vision. Although they do seem like efforts aimed at contrary purposes, I don't doubt that someone someday will successfully weld a deep spiritual parable onto the marriage plot. Not here, though.
February 18, 2018
From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:
Reading Europe - Russia: Bride and Groom. Radio 4's journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.
By one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, Bride and Groom is a tragi-comic novel about family expectations, religious and cultural tensions, and power struggles in rural Dagestan. It's also a love story.
Both Patya and Marat are young, successful and live in Moscow. They have made it: they were able to escape the Caucasian back country that is still stuck between tradition and modernity, as well as police brutality, corruption and Islamist terror. Patya and Marat don't know one another, but when they both return to their home village one summer, their story unfolds. As the couple struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, fate seems destined to keep them together-until the very end.
Episode 2
A death in the settlement further destabilises the community whilst the return of the infamous Khalilbek stirs mixed emotions. As Marat's wedding date draws closer the acts of fate that once kept pushing Marat and Patya closer together now suddenly start pulling them apart. Will there be a wedding after all?
Adapted for radio by Bethan Roberts from the translation by Dr. Carol Apollonio.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production
The Writer
Alisa Ganieva is an author from Dagestan. Her novel, Salam Dalgat! (published under a male pseudonym) won the 2009 national Debut Prize. Alisa's latest novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize. In 2016 the Guardian named Ganieva number 9 on the list of Moscow's thirty most talented young people.
The translator
Dr. Carol Apollonio translated Ganieva's debut, The Mountain and the Wall and was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qb1j4
Reading Europe - Russia: Bride and Groom. Radio 4's journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.
By one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, Bride and Groom is a tragi-comic novel about family expectations, religious and cultural tensions, and power struggles in rural Dagestan. It's also a love story.
Both Patya and Marat are young, successful and live in Moscow. They have made it: they were able to escape the Caucasian back country that is still stuck between tradition and modernity, as well as police brutality, corruption and Islamist terror. Patya and Marat don't know one another, but when they both return to their home village one summer, their story unfolds. As the couple struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, fate seems destined to keep them together-until the very end.
Episode 2
A death in the settlement further destabilises the community whilst the return of the infamous Khalilbek stirs mixed emotions. As Marat's wedding date draws closer the acts of fate that once kept pushing Marat and Patya closer together now suddenly start pulling them apart. Will there be a wedding after all?
Adapted for radio by Bethan Roberts from the translation by Dr. Carol Apollonio.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production
The Writer
Alisa Ganieva is an author from Dagestan. Her novel, Salam Dalgat! (published under a male pseudonym) won the 2009 national Debut Prize. Alisa's latest novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize. In 2016 the Guardian named Ganieva number 9 on the list of Moscow's thirty most talented young people.
The translator
Dr. Carol Apollonio translated Ganieva's debut, The Mountain and the Wall and was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qb1j4
September 26, 2025
Interesantna.
Read
September 19, 2023Vrlo simpatično subverzivna, mislim da mi je to glavnu utisak nakon čitanja ovog romana Alise Ganijeve. Naslovom nas usmjerava na klasičnu romantičnu priču o upoznavanju dvoje mladih i njihovom planiranom braku, ali zapravo ispisuje jednu višeslojnu pripovijest o Dagestanu, o sukobima, o razlikama, o procesu tranzicije, približava nepoznato i razotkriva ono previše poznato. Vrlo pitko, fino buntovno, djeluje autentično i definitivno bih voljela čitati još toga što Ganijeva napiše.
March 19, 2022
Alisa Ganijeva je ruska spisateljica dagestanskog porijekla i njeni romani, koji spadaju i u korpus dagestanske književnosti, su jedini prevedeni na engleski jezik. Bar tako internet kaže.
Ganijeva je novi glas ruske savremene knjževnosti, i to kakav glas!
"Mlada i mladoženja" je formalno priča o dvoje mladih ljudi, Maratu i Patji, koji su uspjeli otići iz svog malog sela negdje u Dagestanu u Moskvu. Sada se moraju vratiti jer, Patja je već prestara a nije udata (25 ljeta), a Maratu je vrijeme da se ženi jer je jednostavno vrijeme. Oni se ne znaju, ali njihove porodice rade ono što tradicija nalaže: Marata vode da upoznaje potencijalne nevjeste, a Patji majka zvoca da će ostati stara djevojka. To je samo formalno.
Roman u svojoj dubini govori o podijeljenosti unutar Dagestana. Poglavlja, koja mogu biti samostalne priče, smijenjuju se kroz perspektive Patje i Marata. Kroz njihove različite perspektive (muška i ženska) sagledava se slika jednog seoceta koje je duboko ukorijenjeno u tradiciji, religiji i porodičnim vrijednostima, a s druge strane ne može da uhvati korak sa modernim, savremenim svijetom koji se odvija van njegovih granica.
Kroz priče o vjenčanju i traženju supružnika, Ganijeva daje pregled sukoba tradicionalnog i modernog. Želje da se izađe iz šablonskog okvira tradicionalnog, gdje se svaki oblik individualnosti guši (naročito u ženi). Ganijeva daje sukob dvije kulture: dagestanske i ruske. Jedne u potpunosti azijske, druge većinski evropske i finalni hibridni proizvod koje su te dvije kulture dale. Ta hibridnost ogleda se u samom seocetu gdje postoje dvije džamije - jedna prava, koju podržava država, i jedna nezvanična, koja tumači Kuran na svoj način, ono što zovemo ekstremizmom u relgiji.
Kroz glasove dva mlada lika, koja su obrazovana i koja su vidjela svije van malih granica svog rodnog mjesta, sagledava se sudar Zapda i Istoka, tradiocionalnog i modernog, političkog i religijskog a sve je toliko isprepleteno i utkano u živote stanovnika koji žive na ivici građanskog rata, ali nastavljaju sa svojim životima i onim najbitnijim: udati i oženiti svoje potomke.
Ganijeva piše izuzetno. Savremeni ruski pun žargona i arapskih riječi učinili su od romana pravu malu poslasticu. Stil joj je gotovo lirski nježan, bez padanja u patetiku. Ona ne zauzima strane, iako porijeklom Dagestanka, ona daje objektivan prikaz stanja u rodnoj republici i kako izgleda kada pokušate izaći iz ralja pravila i očekivanja svoje kulture.
Ganijeva je novi glas ruske savremene knjževnosti, i to kakav glas!
"Mlada i mladoženja" je formalno priča o dvoje mladih ljudi, Maratu i Patji, koji su uspjeli otići iz svog malog sela negdje u Dagestanu u Moskvu. Sada se moraju vratiti jer, Patja je već prestara a nije udata (25 ljeta), a Maratu je vrijeme da se ženi jer je jednostavno vrijeme. Oni se ne znaju, ali njihove porodice rade ono što tradicija nalaže: Marata vode da upoznaje potencijalne nevjeste, a Patji majka zvoca da će ostati stara djevojka. To je samo formalno.
Roman u svojoj dubini govori o podijeljenosti unutar Dagestana. Poglavlja, koja mogu biti samostalne priče, smijenjuju se kroz perspektive Patje i Marata. Kroz njihove različite perspektive (muška i ženska) sagledava se slika jednog seoceta koje je duboko ukorijenjeno u tradiciji, religiji i porodičnim vrijednostima, a s druge strane ne može da uhvati korak sa modernim, savremenim svijetom koji se odvija van njegovih granica.
Kroz priče o vjenčanju i traženju supružnika, Ganijeva daje pregled sukoba tradicionalnog i modernog. Želje da se izađe iz šablonskog okvira tradicionalnog, gdje se svaki oblik individualnosti guši (naročito u ženi). Ganijeva daje sukob dvije kulture: dagestanske i ruske. Jedne u potpunosti azijske, druge većinski evropske i finalni hibridni proizvod koje su te dvije kulture dale. Ta hibridnost ogleda se u samom seocetu gdje postoje dvije džamije - jedna prava, koju podržava država, i jedna nezvanična, koja tumači Kuran na svoj način, ono što zovemo ekstremizmom u relgiji.
Kroz glasove dva mlada lika, koja su obrazovana i koja su vidjela svije van malih granica svog rodnog mjesta, sagledava se sudar Zapda i Istoka, tradiocionalnog i modernog, političkog i religijskog a sve je toliko isprepleteno i utkano u živote stanovnika koji žive na ivici građanskog rata, ali nastavljaju sa svojim životima i onim najbitnijim: udati i oženiti svoje potomke.
Ganijeva piše izuzetno. Savremeni ruski pun žargona i arapskih riječi učinili su od romana pravu malu poslasticu. Stil joj je gotovo lirski nježan, bez padanja u patetiku. Ona ne zauzima strane, iako porijeklom Dagestanka, ona daje objektivan prikaz stanja u rodnoj republici i kako izgleda kada pokušate izaći iz ralja pravila i očekivanja svoje kulture.
March 5, 2022
Thought-provoking and heart-breaking book, set in the Dagestani Republic , a republic of Russia. Ganieva is one of the few Dagestani writers to be translated, and it's a fascinating look at a geography I don't know anything about.
Patya and Marat are Dagestanis who live and work in Moscow, and they've returned home for the same reasons-their traditional parents are nagging them to get married. Ganieva gives you an exploration of the place through their stories, and their interactions with their old friends, and others in their hometown. It's not a cliched narrative of an identity conflict and a loss of roots ( unlike most ridiculous NRI novels), there's a lot of nuance in her characters. Patya and Marat might feel suffocated at home, but they both face Islamophobia in Moscow, with rentals being difficult, colleagues making inseisitive remarks. Back home, the political situation is complicated, and there's a conflict between modernisers and traditionalists, with the traditionalists seeming to gain more power. There's a local political hero/religious hero called Khalilbek, whom the government is looking for, and willing to arrest absolutely anyone with the slightest connection to him. THere's also a militant Islamic threat that Patya's and Marat's families discuss and no end to human rights violations in an attempt to suppress that. THe book is deeply feminist, and not at all sentimental about life in the countryside-patriarchal attitudes make life very difficult for Patya, and she's barely given a choice about whom to marry. Ganieva also brings out the various ethnicities and endogamy still being frowned upon, when Marat's parents are discussing suitable brides for him. She's a very insightful writer, and there are several instances in the first half that are laugh-out-loud funny. It's not easy to navigate a context as fraught with potential danger as this, however-with religious tensions, political conflicts, and a deeply corrupt justice system with institutions that are completely corroded. THe ending of the book was a punch to the gut, but when I had time to think about it, it seems to be Ganieva's way of showing you just how precarious life can be in some instances. And in a world that seems to be moving towards fascism, it seems even more relevant. THis is an excellent book, beautifully translated, and Ganieva's definitely going to be a must-buy author for me.
Patya and Marat are Dagestanis who live and work in Moscow, and they've returned home for the same reasons-their traditional parents are nagging them to get married. Ganieva gives you an exploration of the place through their stories, and their interactions with their old friends, and others in their hometown. It's not a cliched narrative of an identity conflict and a loss of roots ( unlike most ridiculous NRI novels), there's a lot of nuance in her characters. Patya and Marat might feel suffocated at home, but they both face Islamophobia in Moscow, with rentals being difficult, colleagues making inseisitive remarks. Back home, the political situation is complicated, and there's a conflict between modernisers and traditionalists, with the traditionalists seeming to gain more power. There's a local political hero/religious hero called Khalilbek, whom the government is looking for, and willing to arrest absolutely anyone with the slightest connection to him. THere's also a militant Islamic threat that Patya's and Marat's families discuss and no end to human rights violations in an attempt to suppress that. THe book is deeply feminist, and not at all sentimental about life in the countryside-patriarchal attitudes make life very difficult for Patya, and she's barely given a choice about whom to marry. Ganieva also brings out the various ethnicities and endogamy still being frowned upon, when Marat's parents are discussing suitable brides for him. She's a very insightful writer, and there are several instances in the first half that are laugh-out-loud funny. It's not easy to navigate a context as fraught with potential danger as this, however-with religious tensions, political conflicts, and a deeply corrupt justice system with institutions that are completely corroded. THe ending of the book was a punch to the gut, but when I had time to think about it, it seems to be Ganieva's way of showing you just how precarious life can be in some instances. And in a world that seems to be moving towards fascism, it seems even more relevant. THis is an excellent book, beautifully translated, and Ganieva's definitely going to be a must-buy author for me.
February 15, 2021
A mostly successful marriage of Austen-adjacent romance novel and fascinating insights into Dagestani culture. The ending doesn’t quite work, but I still highly recommend this if you’re at all interested in the northern Caucasus.
August 23, 2020
I enjoyed this book, both a bit horrified and amused although anyone familiar with organized religion will recognize some of these situations and struggles. I was only disappointed with the end. It was like the author took the story away from us at the end, like taking a record off the turntable with a loud scritch rather than letting us hear the whole song....but really she was telling a different story than the story I thought I was reading and wanted to hear.
September 12, 2021
This book painted a near perfect picture of my little experience of life in the Caucasus. I was disturbed and charmed. I fell in love with these characters, laughed out loud many times. The Sufi piece mystified me, I have to admit I did not catch any of that at all. But the afterword explains much of it and it didn't take away (or add to) my experience of reading the book. I'd like to read it once more with that in mind. Anyway, I loved it. Plan to read all her others.
August 30, 2023
"Mladoženja i mlada", Imprimatur.
Mislim da sam je u pogrešnom trenutku uzeo i baš sam je mrcvario... 😌 Mogu uvidjeti šta se ljudima dopada u ovoj knjizi.
Mislim da sam je u pogrešnom trenutku uzeo i baš sam je mrcvario... 😌 Mogu uvidjeti šta se ljudima dopada u ovoj knjizi.
June 19, 2019
I found out about this book through the 2019 Translated Book Awards Longlist; I hadn't read any "recent" Russian novels, so I thought I'd give this one a try.
It read, to me, in that detached but detailed way that Dostoevsky was so adept at, with a hint here or there that the novel was, indeed, set in modern times: emails. Cell phones. Energy drinks. House parties. The modern world set against a backdrop of tradition, especially in Patya and Marat's hometown.
This novel was particularly interesting to me, as it relates to Westerners that Russian culture contains multitudes of layers - the urban coworker from Moscow doesn't know Patya's rural customs or region, much like me. Most other people are outsiders, and matchmaking is a tough in such a small, secluded community.
While I enjoyed the love story, the ending really confused me. If someone else reads this and feels they understood it more, please, add a comment to this post. Patya gets dolled up and Marat doesn't arrive. Someone eventually thinks it's because he's been detained by the corrupt police. Patya slips into an old robe and runs away from home during her wedding day, and gets on a train to go to the ocean and swim. Marat is either drinking with Khalilbek somewhere, or he's still in prison, hallucinating? Who is the figure he sees in the water? Are they in the same location somehow, and he's seeing Patya?
I must say, the ending was so abrupt that it knocked the wind out of my affection a bit (you know I'm a sucker for romantic stories, so I was all geared up to see things end up all right for the protagonists, despite the upheaval all around them). I guess the theme is "not everything is fated to be"? At the same time, I felt like the theme had been "making your way in a world where modernism and traditionalism are at war, making your own path," so that's why the ending felt incongruous to me. I would have liked more to this ending - I felt it didn't justify the rest of the novel.
It read, to me, in that detached but detailed way that Dostoevsky was so adept at, with a hint here or there that the novel was, indeed, set in modern times: emails. Cell phones. Energy drinks. House parties. The modern world set against a backdrop of tradition, especially in Patya and Marat's hometown.
This novel was particularly interesting to me, as it relates to Westerners that Russian culture contains multitudes of layers - the urban coworker from Moscow doesn't know Patya's rural customs or region, much like me. Most other people are outsiders, and matchmaking is a tough in such a small, secluded community.
While I enjoyed the love story, the ending really confused me. If someone else reads this and feels they understood it more, please, add a comment to this post. Patya gets dolled up and Marat doesn't arrive. Someone eventually thinks it's because he's been detained by the corrupt police. Patya slips into an old robe and runs away from home during her wedding day, and gets on a train to go to the ocean and swim. Marat is either drinking with Khalilbek somewhere, or he's still in prison, hallucinating? Who is the figure he sees in the water? Are they in the same location somehow, and he's seeing Patya?
I must say, the ending was so abrupt that it knocked the wind out of my affection a bit (you know I'm a sucker for romantic stories, so I was all geared up to see things end up all right for the protagonists, despite the upheaval all around them). I guess the theme is "not everything is fated to be"? At the same time, I felt like the theme had been "making your way in a world where modernism and traditionalism are at war, making your own path," so that's why the ending felt incongruous to me. I would have liked more to this ending - I felt it didn't justify the rest of the novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2024
There are some places in the world where it seems, for all the advances in technology and medicine, that people still live in the past. In the case of Marat and Patya, the protagonists of Alisa Ganieva’s deeply affecting novel Bride and Groom (translated by Carol Apollonio), their parents and friends live according to rules laid out centuries before the Soviet Union attempted to impose itself on Dagestan. Marat and Patya return from their jobs in Moscow to their hometown outside of Makhachkala in order to marry whoever they can, because their parents are desperate for their mid-20s children to have children...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
July 11, 2024
So, ok. A lot going on here, but not much of it worked for me. The main premise of the story (Patya and Marat are two young Dagestan-raised people who have made lives for themselves in the Big City aka Moscow, but are now being pressured by family to get married--will they or won't they get married?) is fine, but Patya and Marat do not seem to care at ALL whether or not they get married, until the last like 4th of the book. So I found myself not caring at all, as a reader. There's a lot of heavy-dialect dialogue, which was fine, only occasionally cringe-y in translation (would an aging mother really use the term 'babe' to describe a woman she heard was out with her son?). Lots of characters show up, none of them are particularly well developed. They are sometimes amusing, though, in a borderline slapstick way. TONS of disparaging language towards women (Patya is constantly reminded that, if she doesn't get married, she will turn into an "overripe, over-the-hill, barren old maid" (199), and the characters can't stop talking about who they think is a slut, or has disparaged someone's honor by like...going outside. It's social critique, ok, but everyone (even the supposedly 'liberal' characters, like Patya and Marat) are invested in it; they both scorn Angela for being a former sex worker, and in one of the final moments of the book, Patya's grandma rips Angela's scarf off of her head--charming. I liked that they didn't end up getting married (Patya goes into the sea, on her Granny's mysterious invective to 'be the one that dives for pearls' and Marat ends up getting drunk with Khalilbek, this Khidr-like evil/good figure who is always annoyingly present/praised in townspeople's conversations). The Afterword by Ganieva (only for the English translation, apparently) points out an "important subtext" of the novel: its Sufi themes. That is, by returning to the sea at the end, and in encountering various drunkards/vagrants/Khidr-Khalilbeks, the two main characters are going through a Sufi-esque journey of losing their Selves, and coming to a type of enlightenment. Ok, sure. I actually didn't mind this as much as one LARB reviewer did. Mostly, I just didn't really like ANY of the characters, and thought the plot was scrambled. Some good moments and lines here and there, and cool that this book is about Dagestan, though. So, there's that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2019
Translated from Russian, Bride and Groom gives us a seldom heard voice and portrayal of life in Dagestan. Both Marat and Patya have returned to their settlement Dagestani hometown after practising law in Moscow. They have to deal with family pressure to get married, small-town gossip and religious extremism. I feel that having some background knowledge, such as the difference between Wahhabism and Sufism or the political tension of Dagestan and the Caucasus region as a whole with the Russians, would have been helpful. There is a clash of values between moderate Islam (and agnostics) and extremist Islam as well as those of difference Islamic sects; illustrated here in the fighting between those from the mosque in town and those from the mosque "across the tracks." A constant threat of erupting violence overshadows the book.
The author's note at the end was actually quite illuminating as the Sufi symbols and motifs embedded throughout the novel were explained. Without it, I wouldn't have appreciated the recurring theme of the sea or points; nor the mythology of Khidr (Moses' teacher) or the ambiguous morality of Khalilbek.
Patya, with a first person narrative voice, comes of sounding independent and strong. I love her inner and outer voice when she daringly calls out male suitors for their posturing and bravado. She manages to persevere in a place where slut-shaming is prevalent and a woman's modesty and reputation is monitored and endlessly dissected. In her mid-twenties, she is considered long in the tooth for marriage!
I would definitely be interested in reading more works by Alisa Ganieva.
The author's note at the end was actually quite illuminating as the Sufi symbols and motifs embedded throughout the novel were explained. Without it, I wouldn't have appreciated the recurring theme of the sea or points; nor the mythology of Khidr (Moses' teacher) or the ambiguous morality of Khalilbek.
Patya, with a first person narrative voice, comes of sounding independent and strong. I love her inner and outer voice when she daringly calls out male suitors for their posturing and bravado. She manages to persevere in a place where slut-shaming is prevalent and a woman's modesty and reputation is monitored and endlessly dissected. In her mid-twenties, she is considered long in the tooth for marriage!
I would definitely be interested in reading more works by Alisa Ganieva.
August 8, 2023
I really enjoyed this novel from a Dagestani writer about the clash of modern-day and tradition in the dusty landscape of rural Dagestan. Djinns are exorcised and curses cast at wedding banquets, while in the presence of smart phones and office jobs waiting back for you in Moscow. We follow along through the eyes of the two protagonists who have escaped their home village, and only indulge and participate in all the customs for their family's sake.
There seem to be multiple layers to how one can read and interpret this story. There is the levity of the marriage plot, the meeting of the maybe-lovers, the amusing bickering and meddling parents, the hilarious old customs. But at the same time there are the misogynistic views of most of the young rural men, the quite scary threat of the stalker, and so many stories devaluing women.
And then there's the political and the religious, the constant rumor mill, the encroaching fundamentalism, the dueling mosques, the corrupt politicians. There's defamations and murders, and everyone's supposed to pick a side. Tied into this, with a hint of magical realism, is the mysticism of Sufism and the Islamic figure of Khidr.
All in all this novel feels carefully crafted, with hints sprinkled throughout.
Yes, the ending felt abrupt. But, I also don't know what else would have been a fitting ending for this story.
There seem to be multiple layers to how one can read and interpret this story. There is the levity of the marriage plot, the meeting of the maybe-lovers, the amusing bickering and meddling parents, the hilarious old customs. But at the same time there are the misogynistic views of most of the young rural men, the quite scary threat of the stalker, and so many stories devaluing women.
And then there's the political and the religious, the constant rumor mill, the encroaching fundamentalism, the dueling mosques, the corrupt politicians. There's defamations and murders, and everyone's supposed to pick a side. Tied into this, with a hint of magical realism, is the mysticism of Sufism and the Islamic figure of Khidr.
All in all this novel feels carefully crafted, with hints sprinkled throughout.
Yes, the ending felt abrupt. But, I also don't know what else would have been a fitting ending for this story.
August 12, 2019
I obediently went to the kitchen, turned on the electric samovar, and got out the broadleaf green tea, cloves, black peppercorns, little bags of dried marjoram and mint, sage, thyme, bay leaf, and a jar of caraway. Scald the inside of a teapot with hot water, add just a pinch or a couple of pieces of each herb, pour boiling water over the mixture, then set it on a distributor over a low flame...
The air smelled of diesel fuel. the pebbles on the embankment, and the sorrow of others.
A man in the corner with dandruff-dusted shoulders who seemed to be made out of chewing gum waved his hand.
I wouldn't have discovered this book if it weren't for August being Women in Translation Month.
This edition includes an afterward by the author to explain the Sufi symbolism throughout. I had no idea. Thank you. Wow. (Me, with my quotes about tea ingredients...)
The air smelled of diesel fuel. the pebbles on the embankment, and the sorrow of others.
A man in the corner with dandruff-dusted shoulders who seemed to be made out of chewing gum waved his hand.
I wouldn't have discovered this book if it weren't for August being Women in Translation Month.
This edition includes an afterward by the author to explain the Sufi symbolism throughout. I had no idea. Thank you. Wow. (Me, with my quotes about tea ingredients...)
September 12, 2020
For Women in Translation Month. It was interesting. When I'm reading Russian novels in translation, my brain is expecting the 19thC, reading of computers mixed with the older traditions was a bit jarring, but good.
Learned more about Sufism and Muslims in Russia.
Had never heard of the Republic of Dagestan, beautiful country with craggy mountains, which is on the Caspian Sea so it has a shoreline, in Georgia. Learned a lot.
More background and context would have been helpful. For instance, the differences between the mosques, the Sunni majority and Sufi minority were very vague. My reading was distracted from the novel because there seemed to be no explanation of why there was conflict. Fair to say most readers are not familiar with Dagestan and have no reason to be. From research, it seems to be a fascinating country/republic. Missed opportunity. Context.
Learned more about Sufism and Muslims in Russia.
Had never heard of the Republic of Dagestan, beautiful country with craggy mountains, which is on the Caspian Sea so it has a shoreline, in Georgia. Learned a lot.
More background and context would have been helpful. For instance, the differences between the mosques, the Sunni majority and Sufi minority were very vague. My reading was distracted from the novel because there seemed to be no explanation of why there was conflict. Fair to say most readers are not familiar with Dagestan and have no reason to be. From research, it seems to be a fascinating country/republic. Missed opportunity. Context.
August 22, 2024
I would have rated this more on the 3.5 end of things rather than the 4.0 side. I loved the sense of Dagestani society, specifically in Makhachkala, the capital, that Ganieva captures. The scenarios in the book feel alive and while somewhat satirical, still have an engaging sense of humanity through the different characters that are introduced. The reader is throughly immersed in the world of Patya and Marat (particuarly Patya's) through their relatives, friends, and acquaintances. The book does a wonderful job of illustrating the complexity of their social networks, all the while placing them amongst the tumultuous political and religious backdrop of the city.
The ending took me off guard. Although the epilogue helped in illuminating some allegorical aspects of the plot, I couldn't shake the sense that those aspects felt somewhat separate from the realism of the world itself.
The ending took me off guard. Although the epilogue helped in illuminating some allegorical aspects of the plot, I couldn't shake the sense that those aspects felt somewhat separate from the realism of the world itself.
January 2, 2025
i hesitate to rate this book 1 star for several reasons
1. it’s translated from russian, and translating is a very tedious, careful business, and i understand that you simply cannot grasp the true meaning of a book by reading a translation rather than the original text
2. i am not dagestani, nor am i even russian. i am not sufi, nor am i even muslim. so i think that every single motif and reference went completely over my head
so, though i feel this way, i just don’t feel that this book had any good pacing or character development, which is why i’m rating it 1 star still. though i do admit this book is probably significantly better if you’re reading it from the POV of a native dagestani sufi muslim who speaks russian and not an protestant anglo saxon teenager from california
1. it’s translated from russian, and translating is a very tedious, careful business, and i understand that you simply cannot grasp the true meaning of a book by reading a translation rather than the original text
2. i am not dagestani, nor am i even russian. i am not sufi, nor am i even muslim. so i think that every single motif and reference went completely over my head
so, though i feel this way, i just don’t feel that this book had any good pacing or character development, which is why i’m rating it 1 star still. though i do admit this book is probably significantly better if you’re reading it from the POV of a native dagestani sufi muslim who speaks russian and not an protestant anglo saxon teenager from california
August 14, 2018
Invariably of interest in part because it is about life in Dagestan, and how often do you read about that? As with her other novel, it has a slightly surreal, dreamy quality. But, anticipating a larger audience, the author also smuggles in a bit more explicit explanation in the form of musings about Dagestan that help to educate an ignorant reader. It's subtle though -- the real focus is the romance plot, and it's a compelling and moving one. Perceptive readers may notice an allegorical dimension -- an Afterword lays it out explicitly, and makes you want to immediately re-read. We will be hearing more about Ganieva in coming years, I predict.
December 18, 2022
i was very tempted not to finish this book multiple times, and only continued because i figured i'd only have a few chances to read anything from dagestan. the story is about people being pressured to get married but being set up with bad matches, along with an overarching god-like guy running the city who now imprisoned, while the town faces a rise in islamic extremism. parts of this should have been comedic, others should have felt deeply heavy, but it all felt one tone, so i always felt disengaged. i was intrigued by the afterward and the sufism explanation, but it's definitely not something i know enough about to read into.
October 26, 2019
I was interested in this world so different from mine, but there were also parts where I found it hard to stay focused. The ending is quite abrupt, sad, and random. Were this book a documentary I would have been more touched. Because I know that injustice, police brutality, religious fanaticism etc are a reality for many people, but in this fictional setting it felt partly unreal or remote.
The main character is a relatable woman in the sense that she feels a bit lost, goes to parties, finds it hard to say "no" to people, feels out of place in her own hometown.
The main character is a relatable woman in the sense that she feels a bit lost, goes to parties, finds it hard to say "no" to people, feels out of place in her own hometown.
July 24, 2024
Обложка намекает на сюжет романа, который только кажется, что о любви, но на деле такой саспенс, что от книги не оторваться.
В родной дагестанский поселок возвращаются из Москвы молодые Марат и Патя, умные, современные и решительно отличающиеся от местных жителей. Сможет ли их светлая любовь противостоять беспросветному мраку и безжалостным традициям, где примерно любое несогласие и отличное от большинства мнение приравнивается к оскорблению многовековых устоев?
В родной дагестанский поселок возвращаются из Москвы молодые Марат и Патя, умные, современные и решительно отличающиеся от местных жителей. Сможет ли их светлая любовь противостоять беспросветному мраку и безжалостным традициям, где примерно любое несогласие и отличное от большинства мнение приравнивается к оскорблению многовековых устоев?
May 10, 2018
This is the first book that I've read about Dagestan. I liked it, it read quickly, and the situation was interesting; but it came to a screeching and confusing halt at the end.
All and all, I think I would have gotten more out of this if I knew more about Sufism and Salafism - the afterword was very helpful - but this was an interesting introduction to the topics.
All and all, I think I would have gotten more out of this if I knew more about Sufism and Salafism - the afterword was very helpful - but this was an interesting introduction to the topics.
August 15, 2018
So I really loved this one! I have never been to Dagestan, nor do I know anyone from there, but I really have the feeling I know both Patya and Marat. The book was funny, and quite impactful at the same time (those last 20 pages had me with my mouth open!). I loved the insight into Dagestani culture, society and the impact of "foreign Islamic groups."
Definitely recommended!
Definitely recommended!
July 6, 2018
It was excellent, and enchanting.
And, owing to the unique way in which it was enchanting, I don’t know that there’s much I can say that would not give away too much.
It’s quite beautiful though, and I’m already looking forward to reading more by Alisa Ganieva.
And, owing to the unique way in which it was enchanting, I don’t know that there’s much I can say that would not give away too much.
It’s quite beautiful though, and I’m already looking forward to reading more by Alisa Ganieva.
May 3, 2019
Imagine Jane Austen with wry observation of local power politics and corruption, with a dash of extremism. Strong recommendation for anyone who likes their romantic comedy to come complete with an insightful analysis of life in the Caucasus.
May 27, 2019
Sufism and religion, romance, intrigue, myth, comedy, tragedy... everything weaves together in an exotic locale. Also particularly memorable were the contrasts between age-old traditions and modern technology, e.g. where the neighbour's son cheats on his test (cellphone + amulet).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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