Tuma

An epic novel by a master of historical prose.

“— On the wheel you go, grandpa! they shouted from the boat. — Glory to Lord Jesus!”

“— And then, for Azov— a direct assault…” Larion told himself.

Resting a walking stick under his armpit, he started knocking out his pipe, tapping it against his hand like it was a piece of wood:

“— And how would it go if the Cossacks had their stone city right there by the sea? Want to—go to Kafa. If you wish— to Tsargrad.”

The wide reaches of the Wild Field—this is where yesterday’s hunter of people turns into a captive.

Here face-to-face meet opposing tribes and warring beliefs.

Here, in one man, the blood of peoples who stand against one another to the death is fused together.

…And so tuma is born—a Russian half-breed, whose name one day will be spoken in every corner of the earth, and will become a song and a myth.

Here is life that holds countless military campaigns and great loves. Here human will is shown—overcoming hell.

Time of action is the 17th century. Place of action is the Cossack Don, Russia and its bleeding borderlands, Crimea, and the Solovetsky monastery… Among the characters are the brothers Razin Stepan, Ivan, and Frol, and their father Timofey, royal boyars and Ottoman beys, the future Patriarch Nikon, the atamans of the Don Host, esauls and Cossacks— the brightest people of their era.

In front of you is a book where the past becomes reality: more than a legend—this is the truth. The reader will easily recognize every character as someone close, and will understand that life as their own: here are described our ancestors who endured the same passions we are experiencing today.

…In this epic novel, written in eight languages, of astonishing scale, you can get lost as in the most beloved books of youth.

“— They told you you had a gift: a black horse.

— While I’m in the dungeon, you can give me all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the sky,” Razin replied. “And the one who gives won’t spend a single kopeck.”

The Greek raised his right hand, opening his palm:

— Pasha will not deceive you. You’ll be able to take your gift.

— I can take my gift. Then the ruler may take his gift,” Stepan answered.

— God can take everything, the Greek said.

— Right words, effendi, Stepan bowed his head. — A Cossack can have only what God takes.”