A Curse on Dostoevsky

A Curse on Dostoevsky:

“Atiq Rahimi brilliantly reimagines
Crime and Punishment
and, in a daring feat of creative panache, transplants Dostoevsky’s classic morality tale to modern-day Afghanistan. This is easily Rahimi’s most imaginative and complex work yet, and should cement his reputation as a writer of great and unique vision.”

—Khaled Hosseini, author of
The Kite Runner
and
A Thousand Splendid Suns

“This book … breathes the very dust of Kabul, the geography, both personal and political, of its alleys and districts. Welcome to Kabul, [a place] with faith but without laws.”

—Livres Hebdo

“This is more a novel to chew over than gobble down.”

—Anthony Cummins,
Sunday Telegraph

“Here, Atiq Rahimi sings an incandescent, raging story, which dissects, in a highly sensitive way, the chaos of his homeland and the contradictions of his people.”

—
L’Express

“ ‘If we all decided, today, on the example of this young man, to put our own activities on trial, we could conquer the fratricidal chaos that is currently reigning in our country.’ This is the function of remorse even in a land in turmoil. It is not a luxury.
A Curse on Dostoevsky
is a gift to literature.”

—Le Figaro

“In the light of the Russian writer, [Rahimi] describes his country so that we may understand it like we never have before. His latest novel isn’t only breathless, beautiful, and strong, it is indispensable … He dared—and succeeded.”

—Le Point

“Most certainly his most ambitious work yet.”

—Libre Belgique

“Wide and bewitching, rich in numerous psychological and metaphysical devices … Atiq Rahimi may have achieved his best work in the French language.”

—
La Croix

The Patience Stone:

“[
The Patience Stone
] is a deceptively simple book, written in a spare, poetic style. But it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war. It is without doubt an important and courageous book.”

—From the introduction by Khaled Hosseini, author of
The Kite Runner
and
A Thousand Splendid Suns

“
The Patience Stone
is perfectly written: spare, close to the bone, sometimes bloody, with a constant echo, like a single mistake that repeats itself over and over and over.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Powerful … an expansive work of literature.”

—New York Post

“In this remarkable book Atiq Rahimi explores ways through which personal and political oppression can be resisted through acts of self-revelation. He reveals to us the violence we are capable of imposing upon ourselves and others in our personal as well as political and social relations. In his stark and compact style, Rahimi recreates for us the texture of such violence, its almost intimate brutality as well as its fragility. Although the story happens within the context of a particular time and place, the emotions it evokes and relationships it creates have universal implications and could happen to any of us under similar conditions.
The Patience Stone
is relevant to us exactly because, as Rahimi says, it takes place ‘Somewhere in Afghanistan or elsewhere.’ ”

—Azar Nafisi, author of
Reading Lolita in Tehran
and
Things I’ve Been Silent About

“With a veiled face and stolen words, a woman keeps silent about her forbidden pain in an Afghanistan marred by men’s foolishness. But when she rediscovers her voice, she overcomes the chaos. Atiq Rahimi tells the story of this woman’s heartbreaking lamentation to awaken our consciences.”

—Yasmina Khadra, author of
The Swallows of Kabul

“[A] clever novel … readers get a glimpse of daily life in a country terrorized by conflict and religious fundamentalism. Rahimi paints this picture with nuance and subtlety … [His] sparse prose complements his simple yet powerful storytelling prowess. This unique story is both enthralling and disturbing.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“Rahimi’s lyric prose is simple and poetic, and McLean’s translation is superb. With an introduction by Khaled Hosseini, this Prix Goncourt–winning book should have a profound impact on the literature of Afghanistan for its brave portrayal of, among other things, an Afghan woman as a sexual being.”

—
Library Journal

“A slender, devastating exploration of one woman’s tormented inner life, which won the 2008 Prix Goncourt … The novel, asserts [Khaled] Hosseini in his glowing introduction, finally gives a complex, nuanced, and savage voice to the grievances of millions.”

—
Words Without Borders

A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear:

“The language has the rhythm of a Sufi prayer; the novel offers an insight into the deepest fears of the people of Afghanistan.”

—Los Angeles Times

“That sense of losing one’s identity, of being subsumed by a greater, if illogical, power, is a key theme in Atiq Rahimi’s taut, layered novel … 
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
is the intimate narrative … of an entire desperate, anguished country.”

—Washington Post

“An intensely intimate portrait of a man (and by extension his country) questioning reality and the limits of the possible … full of elegant evocations … 
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
resonates deeply because, no doubt, Rahimi has written a true and sad account, but the story could easily be that of any other Afghan, of any other denizen of this modern, anarchic state. In the end, we are left to wonder whether Rahimi has presented us with a story, a dream, or a nightmare, though it is likely all three.”

—Words Without Borders

“Rahimi’s tale of confused nationality, indiscriminate punishment, desperate survival, and no clear way to safety depicts decades-old events, but it feels especially poignant amid the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that’s spanned the greater part of the past decade.”

—Flavorwire

“An original and utterly personal account of the pressures a totalitarian society exerts on the individual in 1979 Afghanistan, before the Soviet invasion … A flawless translation does justice to Rahimi’s taut, highly calibrated prose.”

—Publishers Weekly

“In prose that is spare and incisive, poetic and searing, prize-winning Afghani author Rahimi, who fled his native land in 1984, captures the distress of his people.”

—Booklist
, starred review

“Rahimi is an author known for his unflinching examination of his home country as much as the experimental styles in which he writes … 
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
takes risks in its structure … But Rahimi’s carefully controlled new novel exploits these uncertainties, joining the past to the present and legend with fact, creating an appropriately surreal narrative, one that rings through with truth.”

—ForeWord Magazine

“A taut and brilliant burst of anguished prose … both a wonderful and a dreadful little book.”

—
The Guardian

“A beautiful piece of writing.”

—Ruth Pavey,
The Independent

“Short but powerful … The beauty of the language lends this work a haunting clarity.”

—The Herald

“The novella is verbal photography … [it] seems the real thing … seamlessly translated.”

—Russell Celyn Jones,
London Times

Earth and Ashes:

“Anyone seeking to understand why Afghanistan is difficult and what decades of violence have done to its people should read Atiq Rahimi. He is a superb guide to a hard and complex land.”

—Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan

“The blasted dreamscape of Rahimi’s story and his tightly controlled prose make this a sobering literary testament to the horrors of war.”

—Publishers Weekly

“It has the feel of a book of great antiquity and authority; you could more readily level the Afghan mountains than damage the dreaming culture that
Earth and Ashes
both embodies and silently trusts.”

—London Times

“With this novel Rahimi picks up a shard of broken glass and sees the whole truth of his devastated country.”

—Der Spiegel

Copyright © P.O.L éditeur 2011
First published in France as
Maudit soit Dosto
ï
evski
in 2011

Translation copyright © Polly McLean 2013
First published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, London,
in 2013

Production Editor: Yvonne E. Cárdenas

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 2 Park Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10016.
Or visit our Web site:
www.otherpress.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Rahimi, Atiq.

[Maudit soit Dostoïevski. English]
A curse on Dostoevsky / Atiq Rahimi; translated from the French by Polly McLean.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-59051-547-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-59051-548-8 (e-book) 1. Afghanistan—Fiction.
2. Psychological fiction. I. McLean, Polly. II. Title.
PQ3979.3.R34M3813 2014
891’.563—dc23
2013042495

Publisher’s Note:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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