The Blue Sky - Softcover

Tschinag, Galsan

3.68

668 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571310649 ISBN 13: 9781571310644

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 2007

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In the Altai Mountains of northern Mongolia, the nomadic Tuvan people’s ancient way of life is colliding with the relentless influence of the modern world. For a young shepherd boy, the confrontation comes in stages. First, his older siblings leave to attend a distant boarding school. Then, his beloved grandmother dies, taking with her a profound link to the tribe’s traditions and their connection to the land. But the cruelest blow is struck when his dog all that was left to me” dies after eating poison the boy’s father set out to protect the herd from wolves. In despair, he begs the Heavenly Blue Sky for answers, but is met with only the mute wind. Tschinag, the first and only member of the Tuvan to use a written language to tell stories, weaves a lyrical account of his people and their traditions.

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up–A poet, shaman, and leader of his Tuvan people describes the harshness and beauty of a childhood spent herding sheep in Mongolia's High Altai mountains. The boy endures the loss of his beloved grandmother, much of his flock in a difficult winter, and his dog in a tragic accident. The events described happen around 1950 in a part of the Communist world just beginning to experience political change. The author provides a fascinating window into an indigenous world in which nomads move with their flocks and their yurts up and down the mountains according to the season. As the youngest, the shepherd is kept at home when, in the beginning of the Tuvans' assimilation into Mongolian society, his older brother and sister are sent to boarding school. The loss of his siblings is only the first of the events leading to modernization and to his dramatic rejection of Father Sky, the religion of his people. This beautiful and difficult story has been smoothly translated from the German, Tschinag's only written language. A glossary and lengthy notes from both author and translator are appended. This is a memorable read, especially for teens who enjoyed Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton's Facing the Lion (National Geographic, 2003), Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (Pantheon, 2003), or Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton's Come Back to Afghanistan (Bloomsbury, 2005).–Kathleen Isaacs, Towson University, MD
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From Publishers Weekly:

Galsan Tschinag is the German name taken by Irgit Shynykbai-oglu Dshurukuwaa, a Tuvan born in Mongolia in the early 1940s. Tschinag studied in Germany in the early '60s and ended up leading the Tuvan people, dispersed under Communism, back to the High Altai mountain region. This autobiographical novel, the first of a trilogy, mines his Mongolian boyhood as a youngest child with an unusual devotion to his grandmother (who comes to live with his immediate family in their yurt). Galsan has aspirations to increase the family's holdings to 1,000 animals and a yurt with a mirror and a suitcase. As Tuvan customs get disrupted by the Communist government's attempts at societal homogenization, the boy continues to tend sheep without the company of his siblings (sent to boarding school) and turns to Arsylang, his dog, for companionship. The foundations for his natural ambitions disappear piecemeal. Tschinag offers softly outlined characters more in the oral tradition than that of the novel, and fly-on-the-wall depictions of the Tuvans, a generally nonaggressive, nomadic tribe with a knack for maxims and poetic superstitions. Descriptions of the Altai mountains, remarkable sky, and closeness to the flock are slow but rich. The book is filled with small pleasures. (Oct. 26)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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