A Collection of Uzbek Short Stories
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“What do you think about, grandmother?” asked the thief. Then, he took off his coat, folded it, lied down on his side, and used his coat as a pillow. “I think about the future of these four orphans, my thief boy. What else would I think about? You can see that life is hard; it’s harder than a rock. And it’s even harder to earn a loaf of bread, even if it’s the size of a camel’s eye. It’s very hard for these orphans’ only uncle, who is a wagon driver, to provide for them because he has to take care of his own family. There is not a single thing left for us to see and touch in this house. We sell our things, one after another, and with that money, we buy our food. A mountain of money is never enough for spending, as they say. When will these little ones grow up and eat from their own earning? One has to think about this even if he does not want to. And to top all of this, only one of these orphans is a boy and he is the eldest. He is fourteen years old; he hasn’t reached fifteen. The rest are girls; I wonder when these girls will find their own places in life. If there won’t be anyone to take care of them and provide for them, then who will want them? Life is difficult, my thief boy, life is very difficult!”
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About the Book
This book contains ten Uzbek short stories which have been translated into English. Each story is unique in its own way in that it portrays the cultural life of the Uzbek nation as well as the social and political events of Uzbekistan. These stories are translated to provide the English reader with information about Uzbekistan and its society. Some of the included stories were written by such famous writers as Abdulla Qahhar, Ghafur Ghulom, Sayed Ahmad, and Khayriddin Sultonov.
About the Author
Mahmuda Saydumarova was born in Margilan, Uzbekistan in 1990. In 1996, she began first grade at the 243rd school in Tashkent but when her father received a job offer from King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she traveled abroad with her family. In Saudi Arabia, she attended Manarat Ar-Riyadh and Al-Meena International Schools. After finishing high school, she was accepted to King Saud University where she received her BA in English Language and Literature and graduated with first class honors. Saydumarova started her career as an English teacher at King Faisal School in Riyadh. In 2011, she was accepted to the Second Language Studies Department at Indiana University in Bloomington. She successfully completed her studies and received her MA degree in TESOL and Applied Linguistics in 2012. A Collection of Uzbek Short Stories is Mahmuda Saydumarova’s first publication of literary translation. These stories, which illustrate the Uzbek culture as well as its history and social life, have been translated to provide American readers and others who enjoy reading in English with an introduction to the Uzbek people and its culture.