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Galsan Tschinag. Der blaue Himmel. Frankfurt a.M. Suhrkamp. 1994. 178 pages. DM 24.
Nature, family, and community tradition provide the framework for Galsan Tschinag's bittersweet remembrance of childhood, Der blaue Him (The Blue Sky). The Mongolian novelist and short-story writer brings vividly to life the experiences--some idyllic, some tragic--which shaped his early years. Born in 1944 into a family of nomadic Tuvin shepherds, he studied German language and literature in Leipzig between 1962 and 1968 and writes in German. He fuses the techniques of Eastern and Western storytelling with a universal reading of the human condition.
A closely knit family--father, mother, brother, and sister, and especially grandmother and Arsylang the dog--formed the immediate world of the young boy, the narrator. Through his eyes we participate...