These Are the Names

A ragged group of migrants, known only as types such as a boy, a poacher or an Ethiopian, crosses an endless plain after smugglers have abandoned them. Hunger and cold kill them off one by one, and the survivors turn on the weak. Their journey alternates with the life of Pontus Beg, the thoughtful police commissioner of Michailopol, a grubby, corrupt frontier town in the post-Soviet east. Getting older, Beg has begun to look into where his family came from and finds himself wishing he were a Jew; an elderly rabbi, the only Jewish resident left, becomes his guide. When the starving survivors stagger into town, Beg has them locked up.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

301 pages in the original

Genres

Migration (assigned by AI)

First published

2012 by De Bezige Bij

Author's age

45 when first published

ISBN

9789023473282 (original)

9781925106473 (Scribe, Australia)

9781922247841 (Scribe, Australia)

9781612195650 (Melville House, United States)

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Wikidata