The novel by writer Ivan Shamyakin “The Atlases and the Caryatids” is devoted to the people who are building a new socialist city. The fate of the city’s chief architect Maxim Karnach, his work, family life, and the moral and ethical problems he has to solve—these form the novel’s plot foundation.
Ivan Shamyakin is one of the most widely read Belarusian writers, not only in the republic but far beyond its borders. Each edition of his works, disappearing from bookstores at lightning speed, is practical confirmation of the already established popularity. Shamyakin attracts an audience of all ages, worldviews, and tastes. It seems that something in his writing is close and necessary not to separate individuals or to certain social strata—workers, intellectuals, and so on—but to the human multitude. And, apparently, it is that “something” that does not separate people, but brings them together. Without being afraid to sound commonplace, I’ll dare to call this “something” an artistic search for truth. The quality is undoubtedly old as the world, but also eternally young, unique.