I spent a lot of time trying to find an author from Azerbaijan whose book I can get hold of here and had almost given up when I chanced upon Afaq Masud's short stories which are freely available on the web! I should concede that i've never been a huge fan of short stories, but Afaq Masud's 4 short stories completely took me by surprise.
I especially liked "Dormitory" which I believe was written in 1983 under Soviet occupation. Living in extremely close quarters with 150 other families, where even walls have ears, Mastaan and his family don't get a single private moment. When they indeed get their 10 days off to be all by themselves, all hell breaks loose. 15-16 years of suppressed emotions all burst forth in an uncontrollable manner revealing newer darker sides of Mastaan, his wife and their son. At the end of 10 days they can't wait to get back to the 400 people commune and find comfort in that environment. Is this an allegory for living under the Soviet regime?
In any case I found her stories very witty, very well written and offering a glimpse into the lives of Azerbaijainis especially the women. I wish I can get hold of her novels.
Off to the B's now! Oh wait, still have Argentina to finish, but have already started Belarus, and will get to Argentina in a bit.
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