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Hamid Ismailov's picaresque novel mixes genres and viewpoints to provide a fascinating commentary on Islam and central Asia
It is easy to see why this novel has not found a mainstream publisher – who would dare? It is an extraordinary book. I am not sure it is a novel at all – but that barely matters. It is a difficult read and one can get stuck along the way, not least because it is a narrative that keeps putting itself under arrest – as if holding itself up at gunpoint. But it is worth persevering because it takes one deep into Islamic fundamentalism in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan and is frightening, intermittently brilliant and revelatory. Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek writer in residence of the BBC World Service, has come up with the phrase "reality novel" but that does not quite cover it. This is a picaresque journey with journalistic elements: reportage and political interviews alongside adventure, poetry and dreams.
It purports to be a biography of Belgi, a fictional Uzbek new wave poet (slivers of his wistful poetry – hard to judge in translation – decorate the narrative). Belgi leaves Tashkent and goes to the mountains in search of a Sufi spiritual master but by the end of the novel has evolved into a terrorist in the world's eyes and, it is implied, dies in 2001 fighting for the Taliban. The book starts with the destruction of the twin towers, which the narrator, on holiday in central Asia, watches on television He lets us in on the fervent reaction in Kabul too: "Death to America! Death to the empire of Satan! Allah-u-Akbar!" and goes on to deliver a chilling portrait of Uzbek President Karimov "in power for nearly 20 years, intent on stifling political opposition". He describes a country caught between dictatorship and jihadism.
It is when Belgi's beloved brother, Sher, "commits suicide" in prison that he, brokenhearted, takes flight to the mountains. The whole novel could be seen as a mountain range – a sequence of distinct mountain passes. There is Belgi's entertaining but terrifying encounter with a dope-smoking "Cyclops with a Kalashnikov" in a trailer. There is a superbly described childhood episode – a death-defying mountain scramble – in search of wild rhubarb and a final encounter in which, in a mountain village, Belgi is brought face to face, in a room that smells of spices, with Bin Laden. His "morbidly exquisite" face is compared to an Indian minature of a Great Mogul emperor. Elsewhere, there are fascinating descriptions of the Taliban. They gather in Kabul like Old Testament prophets, decanted from gleaming white Toyotas and embracing each other "like outlandish fish on display in some huge aquarium". The book concludes with an unexpected parable (ostensibly Belgi's work), Petals of Blood, about the creator of the Taj Mahal and his family. The theme – fraternal hatred – echoes back through the novel. But the wonderful story stands alone with its warring elephants, captive princesses and murderous sons. The beautiful, overlapping structure is like a tightly petalled rose.
