A tantalising mixture of magical and grim realism - a powerful study of alienation and environmental catastrophe.' David Mills, SUNDAY TIMES - 'A poetic masterpiece, a novella of shocking legacies, alien beauty and blistering emotional intensity which marks the start of Peirene's new Coming-of-Age: Towards Identity series.' Pam Norfolk, LANCASHIRE EVENING POST - 'Ismailov's ability to show how lives seemingly on the periphery are at the heart of the human experience - and to leave us enraged and bewitched - confirms him as a writer of immense poetic power.' Kapka Kassabova, GUARDIAN - 'A novella which draws on myth, fairy tale, poetry and traditional story-telling, it stirs them together to create an unusual parable of a modern arms race cruelly impacting on a traditional way of life.' Elizabeth Buchan, DAILY MAIL - 'This superb novella... reads like a modern fairy-tale, full of a surreal yet mundane horror.' Lesley McDowell, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY