The Scaffold

Chingiz Aitmatov’s strongest, deepest, bitter and dramatic novel—first published in 1986 and becoming one of the main literary events of the late 20th century in our country.

It’s a book about humanity—and what happens when it is absent. About nature, about the animal world that is closely intertwined with the human world; dependent and vulnerable to violence and cruelty. If wolves turn out to be more human, more noble, and more selfless than people—if a person makes the wrong moral choice— it always leads to tragedy.

Tragic are the fates of both the people and the beasts who became the heroes of this novel: the kind and humane young seminarian Avdiya and the blue-eyed she-wolf Akbary, embodying the wisdom and strength of the Steppe itself. Yet those who, no matter whether out of cruelty, greed, or indifference, became the cause of these tragedies, in turn come to know the anger of nature, which harshly takes revenge on criminals…

Published in 1986, the novel is emotional and modern. The fabric of the narrative is so alive—like an open wound—that you’ll be ready to sympathize with the heroes, to experience everything with all your heart, and to truly admire this astonishing prose.