To Hell With Poets

The first English-language collection from the rising star of a new generation of Kazakh writers.

A collection of twenty vivid, hilarious, and often unsettling stories that follow the misfortunes and misadventures of a cast of tragicomic characters striving to hold on to their cultural values while struggling to embrace the seemingly unstoppable advance of capitalism and globalization.The first English-language collection from an emerging talent of the Kazakh New Wave. "Baqytgul Sarmekova offers wry, darkly humorous portraits of ordinary Kazakh people held in the snare of patriarchy, cultural tradition, and postsocialist upheaval... Mirgul Kali deftly recreates the atmosphere of these everyday tensions as they quietly seethe just below the surface." --PEN/Heim judges' citation. Vivid, hilarious and unsettling, the tragicomic characters of To Hell With Poets reflect the inner discord of the modern Kazakh. The stories move between the city and the aul, postsocialist and capitalist worlds, tradition and modernity. Incisive and unapologetic, Sarmekova refuses to hold back, offering a sharp and honest rendering of daily life in Kazakhstan.