Chingiz Aitmatov is a White steamer. Gift book bound in leather

Childhood Trials, Nature, and Myth in Aitmatov’s Prose

"White Steamboat"

At different times and in different places, the heroes of Chingiz Aitmatov live: on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, in a forest cordon near Lake Issyk-Kul, in the Kyrgyz village lost in the mountain gorges… The childhood of one fell on the harsh war years, the other lives in the seemingly cloudless post-war… Well, when the little nivkh Kirisk went on his first sea hunt, who knows?

Each of these boys will have to face a far from childish test - both the natural element and human malice and greed, to withstand a test of willpower, self-confidence and faith in the beauty of the world. "Childhood is not only a glorious time, childhood is the core of the future human personality," Aitmatov believed and forced the heroes to take the hardest exam - the most important one in their lives.

The illustrations of the Island's Svetozar deliberately do not focus on tragic events. But they are consonant with Aitmatov's prose itself, "harsh and gentle", imbued with the beauty of nature and folklore and mythological motifs. Therefore, in the drawings, a herd of horses rushes through a completely deserted world, a horned mother deer jumps through time and space, and a female fish emerges from the depths of the sea. These are the ones who will help the heroes make the right choice.