Stone Dreams : A Novel-Requiem

Amid ethnic violence, political corruption, and petty professionalintrigue, an artist tries to live free of lies.

Set during the last years of the Soviet Union, StoneDreams tells the story of Azerbaijani actor Sadai Sadygly, who landsin a Baku hospital while trying to protect an elderly Armenian man from a gangof young Azerbaijanis. Something of a modern-day Don Quixote, Sadai has longbattled the hatred and corruption he observes in contemporary Azerbaijanisociety. Wandering in and out of consciousness, he revisits his hometown, theancient village of Aylis, where Christian Armenians and Muslim Azeris oncelived peacefully together, and dreams of making a pilgrimage of atonement toArmenia. Stone Dreams is a searing, painful meditation onthe ability of art and artists—of individual human beings—to make change in theworld.

“Mr. Aylisli touchingly characterizes Sadai [Sadygly] as a modern-day Don Quixote, a man who is excessively, even perhaps childishly, sensitive to the plight of the outcast. Melancholy infuses his sunlit remembrances. Far from an exhortation, Stone Dreams is a moving, light-fingered tale about the fantasy of empathy, and the dreamers—like Sadai or Mr. Aylisli himself—who sacrifice everything in the effort to give it reality.”

—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“Stone Dreams deserves a wide readership for its literary merits alone, never mind the level of access Aylisli provides to the rich and complex cultural mindset of the South Caucasus, a mindset considered impenetrable by most outsiders. Because his work is banned in Azerbajian, it is more critical to read Aylisli now than ever. History demonstrates that literature, not the censor, prevails—so long as the public does not allow it to be forgotten.”

—Alex Raufoglu, Azerbaijani-American journalist