The Way of the Dead
Audiobook
The Way of the Dead
The true story of a hunter from the Siberian Mansi people
Sasha lives far from civilisation on the upper Pelym River, which originates in the foothills of the Urals. Just twenty years ago, there were settlements of several Mansi families here, but they have disappeared one by one. Only Sasha remains in the forests, where he hunts moose and bears. But as his friends dwindle, his bond with the bottle of cheap alcohol grows ever stronger. In a drunken state, he even raises his hand against one of his remaining companions, Petka. And although forgiveness becomes almost a necessity of life in the loneliness of the vast taiga, justice will soon reach here too. But not even a prison can bind a hunter's soul. A free life in his native taiga comes alive in Sasha's memories of his family and in the images of old stories. In the end, however, time itself inflicts the worst punishment—upon his return home, Sasha's relatives are dead, and he loses his meaning in life. His gradual departure from this world begins, accompanied by personal demons and the spirits of the forest.
Sasha's character reflects the sad history of the small Mansi nation, which fell victim to the Soviet era and its demise.
The novel's greatest asset is its exceedingly realistic atmosphere, which is aided by the language processing, close to a reportage style. [The author] is brilliant at describing the daily desolation of a world where nothing awaits anyone, where people live forgotten and in poverty, and treat their suffering with cheap alcohol.
- Viktorie Schödelbauerová, Literární noviny, on the novel Hřbitov nevěst (Cemetery of Brides)
Tomáš Boukal
(born 1977) studied ethnology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. He has long been engaged with the indigenous populations of the Russian and Canadian North, particularly the relationship of hunters, fishermen, and gatherers to the taiga environment. He also monitors the degradation of the northern landscape and the consequences these changes bring. He has undertaken several journeys among the indigenous people of Siberia and northern Canada and lived in the Altai for several years. He is the author of a number of academic monographs and articles, such as Torava (2003), Ecological Anthropology (2013), and Cesta lesem (The Forest Path, 2018), as well as the fiction book Hřbitov nevěst (Cemetery of Brides, 2018). He works at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Pardubice. He is interested in ethnic music and painting with Nordic themes.
