Hunting Dogs

by Farkhat Tamendarov

Hunting Dogs takes us on a journey from Kazakhstan to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast and reflects the harsh realities of modern-day  ife, the reasons why each member of the traveling gang decides to embark on these adventures and where their travels lead them. The central character is Yusuf, a lad his traveling companions call geek, who gazes at the stars and dreams of one day seeing the Pacific Ocean. There is something different about him and he seems somewhat detached from the others. Perhaps this is because he is a studious type, but perhaps it is because he is indeed different. Yusuf has dreams of Sir Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind, of Long John Silver, native Indians and pirates, and these dreams, if that is what they are, present Yusuf as Joseph, a cabin boy, whose presence on a sixteenth-century galleon is as out of place as Yusuf’s presence among his peers Chub, Yeroma and Perro in today’s Kazakhstan.