Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
Four Dervishes
Four Dervishes
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Wedi'i gosod yn y Dwyrain Canol, mae Four Dervishes yn olrhain taith tuag at ddealltwriaeth drwy gyfrwng adrodd stori amlhaenog. Dinoethir cyfrinachau teuluol tywyll, cyflawnir troseddau ac amlygir dolennau cudd rhwng tad a mab, a chaiff cylch bywyd ei gadarnhau, a hynny oherwydd i nam ar y cyflenwad trydan orfodi'r traethydd i wynebu ei amgylchiadau presennol.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
Set in the near East, Four Dervishes is a journey to understanding through layers of storytelling. Dark family secrets are laid bare, crimes committed, unknown links between a father and a son revealed, and the cycle – the circularity – of life is confirmed, all because a power failure forces the narrator to confront his present circumstances.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9781781726310
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9781781726310
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- Four Dervishes
- Awdur / Author
- Rind, Hammad
- Current Price ex VAT
- £9.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £9.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Available
- Availability Status (CY)
- Ar gael
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2021-10-08
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Seren
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 184 pages
- Size
- 135 × 208 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Ffuglen Lenyddol a Chyffredinol (yn Saesneg) | EN: General and Literary Fiction (in English)
Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography
Hammad Rind was born in Punjab, Pakistan, and currently lives in Cardiff, Wales. His stories and articles have appeared in a number of UK and international magazines including The Madras Courier, James Joyce Broadsheet and Y Stamp. He regularly leads community and online workshops on storytelling and Eastern literature. Hammad speaks Urdu, Saraiki, Punjabi, Persian, Turkish and French, and writes in English, Urdu and Persian.
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
This book follows a man who has suffered a power cut and is, therefore, forced to unfix his eyes from his TV screen and venture out of his house, eventually finding himself within the confines of a gravedigger’s ‘sombre abode’. Here, our narrator is joined by the gravedigger himself and three other wanderers, who all possess remarkable stories from their past and very much intend to tell their tales of sacrifice, transgression and renewal. Each individual’s story is extensively detailed and unique, and told as if this is their last day on earth (for the infamous criminal Zoltan, it may well be), a sort of catharsis for the storytellers, if you will. Leila, the daughter of a wealthy healer, begins her tale with her upbringing and explains how her familial wealth ostracised her from the other children in her village. She confesses that her childhood would have been very lonely if it were not for her mother’s constant infestation of lice – caused by her mother’s insatiable sweet tooth, after having her pancreas stolen in a dream – because then, Leila would not have met Zara the Delouser. Zara becomes her life-long friend and eventually helps Leila escape the expectations placed upon her as a female aristocrat. Then, Freddy steps up to disclose his story – he is described notably by the narrator as a ‘foreigner’, as Freddy tells the group that after finding out his true origins as a child, he realised that he was a messiah sent to free his homeland of Rey from ‘the atrocious regime of Azdak’. So, he sets off to do just that. However, his mission is interrupted when he is accused of an unusual crime with blood-curdling consequences, casting an uncertain shadow over his ability to free his people. Unexpectedly, the gravedigger also has his own story to tell, and it is a bizarre one at that. Nevertheless, his detailing of how he came to work as a gravedigger sheds some light on the nature of cults and delivers the message that ignorance is not bliss but instead inherently baleful for all those involved. In a surprise appearance, the last guest to join in on the storytelling is the renowned thief Zoltan, who frantically yearns for someone to hear him spill his sins. The group listens to him describe his mighty rise as the most infamous criminal and thus, his inevitable fall, induced by his betrayal of his own sister, whose name Zoltan refuses to mention to the male members of the group as well as the reader. The singular narratives within Four Dervishes all contain a kind of mutilation or dismemberment of the human body, with this commonality perhaps acting as a metaphor for how the storytellers are baring their souls to their fellow acquaintances and exposing their innermost sufferings to the reader, piece by piece, intricacy by intricacy. Thus, Rind ensures that sympathy for these characters is almost an obligation, using this technique to humanise the characters rather than allowing them to do this through interacting with each other. In a time when the lives of strangers are more accessible than ever, this is a story about storytelling that prioritises the art of consent, with each character fiercely offering their story to you, whether it is culturally palatable or not. This causes you to question the one person who has not told his tale, leaving the reader with the greedy desire to know – what is the narrator’s story?
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