The Incomplete Manuscript

Now translated into English, The Incomplete Manuscript: Translated from Azerbaijani by Anne Thompson is a novel narrating the imaginary life of medieval icons. When a young researcher accidentally comes across a manuscript in the Manuscripts Institute, he discovers the unexpected but well-known epic Kitabi Dada Korkud, combined with the history of Azerbaijani shah and poet Shah Ismail's life set in an entirely new interpretation. This stunning novel turns into a game of literary fiction that has already thrilled readers around the world. "From the first pages of Incomplete Manuscript, Kamal Abdulla is like a lapidarist who for days and nights walks around the uncut diamond to find that particular angle for brilliant cut and tries to imagine what it will look like once cut and polished. Read the book as a detective novel and as an approach to myths, and above all as an introduction to the study of self." - Prof. Andrea Brignon, France "Kamal Abdulla still can be singled out as a writer 'dancing' with different layers of language, different periods of national history, different cinematic shots, and montage effects of Confucius." - Prof. Niyazi Mekhti, Baku University of Arts and Culture "Everything that an epic had to suppress in order to achieve 'unity' and 'completeness' - a great artistic force is needed - the force of a Bulgakov, a Joyce, a Walcott, or Kamal Abdulla." - Prof. Max Statkiewicz, University of Wisconsin-Madison Kamal Abdulla is a professor of linguistics in Baku, Azerbaijan.