Kuraj [Paperback]

Silvia di Natale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

An epic and moving historical novel about a nomadic girl's search for home.

Born in the late 1930s on the Central Asian steppe, Naja is the daughter of a clan chieftain of the Tushan nomads, proud descendants of Genghis Khan. When her fiercely independent father, U'lan, hears of Stalin's plan to bring the Tushan under state control and make them settle permanently in collective farms, he pledges to join forces with the invading German army. It is a pledge of honor that will take her father to the hell of Stalingrad and change Naja's life forever by eventually bringing her, at the age of nine, to ruined postwar Cologne.

From there she must learn to adapt to a strange new culture, and to the strange family that has taken her in. But as Naja gradually grows more comfortable in this alien world, the memories of her young life on the steppe call out to her. She begins a difficult search for her past--and the past of her people--with only the word kuraj (Tushan for tumbleweed) as her talisman and guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on a true story, Di Natale's expansive debut chronicles the journey of Naja, a Mongol girl taken from the Central Asian steppes to Cologne, Germany, during WWII. This absorbing if not entirely coherent novel encompasses the far-flung war story that precedes the young heroine's relocation, the details of her alienation in Europe and the cultural history of her nomadic people. When her birth father, Ul'an, a Tunshan khan, joins the Germans in protest of Stalin's collectivization, he meets Lt. Günther Berger, with whom he lays siege to Stalingrad as part of the Turkestan battalion. After the Russians capture and imprison the two men, they escape and return to the steppes, only for Ul'an to die. At Ul'an's behest, Günther adopts the 10-year-old Naja, and with his wife, Siglinde, raises her in his bourgeois German postwar household. As the novel—titled after Naja's native word for tumbleweed—shifts points of view, time and place, it follows her to middle age, when she comes to familial terms with her adoptive parents and her past. The plot line is original and the writing lyrical, but the number of shifts involved in Naja's journey back to her own identity will leave less diligent readers behind. (Jan.)
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Review

'An extrarondiary epic of emigration, capture, ruin, flight and return - a revelation' Corriere della Sera 'Extraordiary and gripping' Repubblica 'Full of poetry and human depth' Bucherschau --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; Tra edition (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582342202
• ISBN-13: 978-1582342207
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,407,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So BORING, November 29, 2010

By 

K. Nash (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kuraj (Hardcover)

Could not even finish the book. The main character is Naja, a girl from a nomadic tribe in the Central Asian steppe, who is the daughter of a tribal leader in Mongolia. During WWII, her family moves to Germany and she keeps "disrupting" the flow of the novel with mythical excerpts from her Mongolian life. The characters in this book are never fully developed, and I personally could not "connect" with them. I think if you have great interest or knowledge of central Asia, this could be the book for you. If not, its not an easy read nor very interesting.