Amazon.com Review: Set between 1900 and 1980 in Uzbekistan, the novel introduces us to the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas, on the ancient Silk Road. The novel involves various characters whose stories we hear - this is Methodius the lawyer, the alcoholic intellectual; Father John, Russian priest; Kara-Musaev Jr., chief of police; old moneylender Umarali. Their colorful lives present unique and comical pictures of a little-known land inhabited by mullahs, advancing Bolsheviks, and various peoples - Uzbeks, Russians, Persians, Jews, Koreans, Tatars and Gypsies. At the center of the novel and, in fact, the city, there is a railway station, a source of large incomes, theft and a direct connection with the big world. The novel delights with its naturalness and easy storytelling style, chronicling the dramatic changes that were felt throughout Central Asia in the early 20th century. Translation of the description - Psychedelic. The novel (and the writer incl.) is banned in Uzbekistan.

Review by The Independent: In terms of narrative style, Ismailov can be classified as a traditional Russian satirical novelist: from Gogol to Bulgakov and Platonov. Like their works, “The Railway”, in turn, is an ironic, cheerful, but full of melancholy (full of “toska”) story. Despite the "Russification" and "entrenchment" of [Bolshevik] tyranny, the people of Gilas retained their identity through beliefs, customs and resourcefulness. The book is replete with vivid scenes of attempts to disrupt party politics (Party apparatchiks). At the center of the novel is an orphan boy who is raised by relatives. His type generalizes the millions of orphans of the USSR, who were born as a result of wars, mass repressions and forced collectivization. Prompted by children's literature and schools, during the first post-revolutionary decades there was an idealized opinion that “The orphan’s father was Stalin, his grandfather was Lenin.” Description translation - Psychedelic.