Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Zuleikha
    Zuleikha
    Zuleikha
    Audiobook18 hours

    Zuleikha

    Written by Guzel Yakhina

    Narrated by Elise Arsenault

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    WINNER OF THE BIG BOOK AWARD, THE YASNAYA POLYANA AWARD AND THE BEST PROSE WORK OF THE YEAR AWARD

    Soviet Russia, 1930. Zuleikha, the “pitiful hen,” lives with her brutal husband Murtaza and her mother-in-law in a small Tartar village. When Murtaza is executed by communist soldiers, she is sent into exile to a remote region on the Angara River in Siberia. Hundreds die of hunger and exhaustion on the journey and over the first difficult winter, yet exile is the making of Zuleikha.

    As she gets to know her fellow survivors ― among them an eccentric German doctor, a painter, and the conscience-stricken Commander Ignatov, her husband’s killer ―Zuleikha begins to build a new life far removed from the one she left behind.

    Guzel Yakhina’s outstanding debut ― inspired by her grandmother's childhood memories of being exiled to the Gulag ―has been translated into twenty-one languages, capturing the hearts of readers all over the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    TranslatorLisa C. Hayden
    Release dateSep 24, 2019
    ISBN9781978691063
    Author

    Guzel Yakhina

    Guzel Yakhina (b. 1977 Kazan, Tatarstan) is a Russian author and filmmaker of Tatar origins. She graduated from the Kazan State Pedagogical University and completed her PhD at the Moscow Filmmaking School. Zuleikha is her first novel.

    Related to Zuleikha

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Intarsia

      Feb 6, 2020

      Intarsia
      6 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Milla’s Dandelion

      Sep 10, 2022

      The sun blinded Alchemilla as she entered the meadow. It was hidden deep in the forest, too deep for anyone to venture in without a reason. She didn’t mind the isolation, and if anything, it made her work easier. After her eyes adjusted, she took off

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Farm Incident

      Apr 25, 2018

      The Farm Incident
      10 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Northern Soul

      Dec 15, 2020

      The Northern Soul
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shula And The Sun

      Oct 13, 2017

      Shula And The Sun
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      Out Of This WORLD

      Apr 20, 2021

      Out Of This WORLD
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      The White Fox

      Oct 13, 2017

      The White Fox
      10 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2022

      It was an unusual birthday. Colorful banners blanketed the backyard. Kids chased each other through the grass. Adults talked. It all went downhill from there. My little sister was turning five. On her birthday cake, painted in frosting, was a fat, pi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      May 16, 2022

      Book Extract
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Hound and the Hidden Homework

      Feb 1, 2019

      The Hound and the Hidden Homework
      4 min read

    • Article

      New World

      Aug 2, 2018

      New World
      2 min read

    • Article

      A perfect COMPANION

      Sep 1, 2022

      A perfect COMPANION
      3 min read

    • Article

      Portal To Peril

      Feb 6, 2019

      Portal To Peril
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Primeval Comic Book

      Aug 1, 2017

      The Primeval Comic Book
      8 min read

    • Article

      DIVINE Intervention

      Jul 13, 2022

      DIVINE Intervention
      3 min read

    • Article

      Not My Cat

      Aug 21, 2023

      The rise and fall of fur, sunlight rippling across his perfectly groomed coat – it’s enchanting, hard to look away. For 30 minutes, she’s watched the cat sleeping on three blankets, folded and piled on top of one another. She’s cold, but can’t bring

      6 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Zuleikha

    4/5

    93 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Una storia che trascina il lettore in un vortice di emozioni ed avventure. Davvero un opera di grande caratura narrativa!
    • 4/5
      This is a very good book, but I really didn't like the narrator that they used for the audiobook. For this reason I removed one star. She spoke in a tone that was so American that it took me out of the story, and she kept on mispronouncing the names! Surely they could have found a Tatar or Russian person to tell her how to say them?
    • 4/5
      I requested this book because the premise sounded interesting: a woman is removed from her brutal husband and mother-in-law and taken to Siberia where life is actually better than what she left behind. Also that it was based on a real person. When the almost-500-page book arrived in the mail I was daunted by the task ahead.From the first page I was enthralled with Zuleikha's world: life as a Russian peasant (in modern times) just trying to eek out an existence. Then six months in a cattle car across Russia, a section that reminded me of countless Holocaust stories. At the end of their long journey Zuleikha and her new friends find themselves in the middle of nowhere with practically nothing. Welcome to your new home.The author doesn't mince words and there is rarely any filler. Nearly every word on the page moves the story along. The author was descriptive of the landscape and the people, but spread it throughout the story, not just in a giant section.The only thing I found disappointing was the way the ending happened. After nearly 500 pages of the story plodding along, it was like the author realized she needed a climax and an ending in the space of about seven pages. The action seemed jerky, almost like a movie on fast forward and you only get a frame here and there. Then the story just stopped.All in all, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in life in Siberia during Soviet Russia.
    • 4/5
      I received this book through Librarything.com Early Member Giveaway for an honest review of the book. This is my own opinion on the book. The book takes place in 1930s Soviet Russia. Zuleikeha is sent into exile. Her husband is executed. I enjoyed this book. I like the main character. But I didn't care for the husband and the mother in law.
    • 3/5
      Although Guzel Yakhina won several prizes for Zuleikha, I didn't expect her to be Solzhenitsyn. She's not. She's not Danielle Steele either, so that's to her credit. I'm sorry; I found the whole thing a slog. I'd much rather have read a non-fiction account of the same material, a sad confession for one who appreciates the importance of story. I will give a half point for descriptions of the river and the land, but that can't carry 482 pages.The story is compelling, following a young Tatar peasant from her home on a six month train ride across Russia to Siberia, through the first killing winter in a tiny settlement on the Angara, through childbirth, and on into the years in which the settlement prospers.The problem is Zuleikha herself. There is really no self there. Late in the book she reflects that she has never thought at all. She hardly speaks at all either. In fact, her longest speech consists of a folk tale that she tells her son. If the point is the brutishness of a hardcore scrabble for survival, then it is well made. It makes for dull reading for a person who prefers character-driven novels. My thanks to ER anyway. I was eager to have this book, and they fed my desire.
    • 4/5
      Zuleikha lives with her abusive husband, Murtaza, and her mother-in-law (whom she thinks of as the Vampire Hag) in Soviet Russia in 1930. Her life with them is a very hard one. When communist soldiers come to take over their farm, her husband is killed and she’s sent to Siberia. It takes them many difficult months on a train to get there, with many dying along the way. The other survivors include a painter, a mind sickened doctor and the man who killed her husband, Commander Ignatov. Together they begin to build a new life for themselves.This is a powerful Russian saga, giving an immense overview of life under communist rule. It covers such a wide range of political and religious issues. This author is a master at painting an image of the world as it was then in Russia for dekukalized peasants. I felt like I was watching a movie on a huge screen as I read this book. The author is also a filmmaker so that may well be why the book has such a cinematic feel to it. She doesn’t hold back on how brutal their lives were and there are some scenes that are horrific. The only reason that I’m not giving this book a full 5 stars is that there were times when it dragged a bit for me and at times when the plot seemed to be a bit contrived. But overall, it’s a wonderful read. The characters were deeply portrayed and Zuleikha’s life is a heart wrenching one.Recommended.This book was given to me by the publicist in return for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      I received this book through LT for my honest review. I enjoyed it, but it was, at times, difficult to read. The inhumanity and cruelty were hard to bear. I applaud the survivors of this viciousness, and know that I am not that strong, and would not have survived. I would like to thank the author (and her grandmother) for sharing this story.
    • 4/5
      ZULEIKHA, by Guzel Yakhina, has won a few pretty prestigious awards in its original Russian edition published in 2015. And now we have this first English edition (2019), translated by Lisa Hayden. The title character is an uneducated 30 year-old Tatar Muslim, married at 15 to Murtaza, a brutal man 30 years older. They live with the man's mother, "the Vampire Hag," who is nearly 100 years old, blind and deaf, but still ruling the household with an iron fist. Zuleikha has buried 4 daughters, a tragedy made worse by her cruel, overbearing mother-in-law. The story opens in the year 1930 in their tiny village near Kazan, but the soon shifts, when a Red Army contingent arrives tasked with "dekulakization," or rounding up all the landowners and collectivizing the farms and villages. Murtaza resists and is summarily shot by the Red leader, Ivan Ignatov, who becomes, then, the principal male protagonist in a story which spans the next 16 years. Zuleikha endures a months-long journey, by sledge, train and barge, under horrendous conditions, finally ending up in the Siberian "taiga" along the Angara River near Krasnoyarsk, where she and other survivors of the long trek begin to build their own encampment, or gulag. And, oh yeah, along the way, Zuleikha discovers she is pregnant with her dead husband's child, and gives birth prematurely soon after their arrival at the wilderness camp, assisted by a doctor who is one of the prisoners. Other members of this first party include an agronomist, an artist, a chef, and Gorelov, a natural "stool pigeon" for their Red captors, and the villain of the story. Zuleikha's son, Yuzuf, clings to life under the harsh conditions of the camp, and becomes her obsession and reason to survive. She also finds herself attracted to the camp's commandant (and her husband's killer), Ignatov, who is, in many ways, a troubled soul, and an often unwilling participant in this great experiment. Zuleikha makes her way in the camp (later named Semruk) in various ways, as a kitchen helper, a medical aide and nurse, and, weirdly, as a hunter. The years come and go, including the war years. Her son grows. The tortured relationship between Zuleikha and Ignatov burns hot and cold. More prisoner parties arrive, the camp grows, people die, etc. A lot of stuff happens.What we have is a kind of Russian potboiler - of a brutal marriage suddenly terminated, a long, hard journey to a new life, childbirth, suffering, survival and death, forbidden love, etc. Not really my kind of book, and to be honest, I nearly tossed it after about 150 pages, but it gradually got better and I stuck with it and decided it was a pretty good story. It would make a great TV mini-series, which might even be better than the book. ZULEIKHA is a book that I suspect will appeal more to women readers. That said, I didn't love it, but will - cautiously - recommend it.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
    • 4/5
      This sprawling novel is supposedly inspired by stories from the author's grandmother. The exile of a rag tag group of people to the Siberian taiga makes for a good story. Zuleikha, a peasant woman from a Tatar village, and Ivan Ignatov, the commander of the settlement are the main characters, and we follow them from about 1930 to 1946. I was sorry to have to leave them at the end of the novel. Both were complex characters and through them we see the implacability and capriciousness of the Soviet bureaucracy -- although each is affected differently. And the supporting cast of professionals, a doctor, and an artist, not to mention real criminals, add to the novel as well. The setting is meticulously described, at times making it seem like a character in itself: "Death is everywhere here but death is simple, understandable, and wise, even just in its own way. Leaves and needles fall from the trees and rot in the earth, bushes break under a heavy bear paw and dry out, grass becomes quarry for a deer, just as a deer is quarry for a pack of wolves. Death is tightly, seamlessly interwoven with life, so it's not scary...No matter how terrible the peat fires rage in autumn, no matter how cold and harsh the winter is...Zuleikha knows that spring will come." This inhospitable country becomes a home of sorts to the characters.Well done first novel.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. I liked the array of characters and the storyline. I wish there would be a sequel to finish the story of some of the characters.
    • 5/5
      Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina (Гузель Яхина)Set in 1930 (Soviet Russia) Zuleikha witnesses the murder of her husband by the Communists. She is then taken to a Camp in Siberia. With the rough conditions many will die and survival is crucial. She begins to make friends with the others and tries to cope. Life is definitely changing and she does what she must to survive.Moving at a steady pace, with detailed prose, giving (you) a feel of what life is like for Zuleikha. She faces so many obstacles, and range of emotions. I was drawn into her world, with compassion and hope. Loosely based on the Authors Grandmother, added to the emotional pull. Overall I found Zuleikha a compelling memorable read, and feel others will like it as well.