The Prankster

“Many different adventures—funny and sad—had to be endured by the hero of this book. And yet those who wanted to fool others “got away with it anyway”…

The story of the Trickster is a story of gaining freedom through wandering and labor—and returning Home…

The story of the Trickster is the story of Gafur Gulyam’s own childhood: how he wandered along dusty roads, how he slept under the open sky, how greedily he grabbed at any job… But thanks to the author’s inexhaustible imagination and cheerful invention, rooted deeply in the people, the Trickster gains kinship with the legendary Nasreddin, the beloved hero of Uzbek folklore. The Trickster Gafur Gulyam has a lively imagination; in his speech, proverbs and sayings, metaphors and comparisons sound—most of which are colored by humor, because the Trickster looks at the world, as the author himself said, “through the clever little glasses of laughter!” And in the pure heart of the Trickster lives a sense of inner freedom and the beauty of the world—and it always remains open to the beautiful…