Until now, when I pick up a German book, it has been non-fiction. I've been staying within the travelogue genre: it's easy to grasp what's going on. After all, I know how to travel, so when someone writes about travel, then it's hard to get lost. You more or less know what's happening.
So I thought I would try reading fiction. And because I also wanted to read a novel from every country, I picked this book, since it's rather hard to get a novel from Azerbaijan that is in English. I figured this would be a good chance to tick off this country. But unfortunately, I got lost. It's relatively simple when it comes to the plot. There's an Azerbaijani person who witnessed an attack on an Armenian. He brings the Armenian to the hospital. There's a doctor who treats the Armenian, who's in a coma, and while in a coma, dreams about the village of Aylis. Aylis is located within the exclave of Nakhchivan, in Azerbaijan. It used to be the case that Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived here in relative peace, but this is not the case anymore.
Reading this made me realise that as much as I understand the German language, what I found hard to grasp was the bigger picture. If I look at each sentence, I do understand what is going on. But I still find it difficult to detect the larger narrative structure. There are flashbacks, but it registers relatively late for me. There are characters in the present and past, yet figuring out which is which was still a struggle. This was supposed to be a powerful book, after all, the author got into big trouble in Azerbaijan when it was published. Akram Aylisli had the honored position of being a People's Writer in Azerbaijan, yet publishing this book turned him into Azerbaijan's Public Enemy Number One. Unfortunately, my German knowledge wasn't strong enough to sense the import of this book, however.
Upon finishing this book, I felt like it was a very hazy exercise. I grasped bits and pieces of it, yet unfortunately I cannot get the full clear picture. I have encountered books in English that have given me the same feeling, yet at least for those, I could confidently say it was not a language issue. However in this case, I cannot rule that out. Perhaps I'll stay within the travelogue genre for the time being, when I pick up another German book. I give this one 3 out of 5 stars.
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