A novel about Africa, written as if it were a fairy tale passed down from mouth to mouth.

As a child, Ilyas was kidnapped by German colonial soldiers and taken from the East Coast of Africa. He was raised to be a warrior who would fight against his people. Years later, he comes to his native village. His house is destroyed, his parents have disappeared, and his sister Afia has been effectively enslaved. Hamza, wounded in body and soul, also returns home. He is looking for work, security and love - in the arms of the beautiful, fearless Afia. The destinies of young people are intertwined more and more closely, but the shadow of a new war again threatens to destroy the fragile peace.

For the first time in Russian, a new novel by the Nobel Prize winner in literature 2021 year.