The Gray Earth

This powerful, sweeping novel continues the saga of the Tuvan shepherd boy introduced in The Blue Sky. Torn between the onset of visions and a deep interest in shamanism on one hand, and pressure from his family to attend a state boarding school on the other, the adolescent Dshurukuwaa attempts to mediate the pulls of spirituality and pragmatism, old ways and new.

Taken from his ancestral home, Dshurukuwaa reunites with his siblings at a boarding school, where his brother also serves as the principal. Soon he comes to understand that the main purpose of the school – and for that matter, of the state – is to strip the Tuvans of their language and traditions, and to make them conform to party ideals. Struggling to escape oppression by excelling in his studies, it is not long before Dshurukuwaa and his family are at odds with the system, placing his brother in danger. When tragedy strikes, Dshurukuwaa begins to sense the larger import of his visions, and with it a way to honour his native identity and heritage.

Rooted in the oral traditions of the Tuvan people and their epics, Galsan Tschinag weaves the timeless tale of a boy poised on the cusp of manhood with the story of a people on the threshold.

»Dazzling … [Makes] the alluring ordinary, the ordinary alluring.« TIME