Dua for an Infidel
Novel by Egana Djabbarova
Novel by Egana Djabbarova
ORIGINAL TITLE: Дуа за неверного
ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: New Literary Observer, 2025
128 PAGES
ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: New Literary Observer, 2025
128 PAGES
RIGHTS SOLD: German (Zsolnay Verlag)
ENGLISH SAMPLE AVAILABLE
ENGLISH SAMPLE AVAILABLE
“My brother aspired to masculinity like a flower bending toward the sun. He posted photos of his toned arms and torso, shared posts about workouts, push-ups, and ways to build muscle fast. He was exactly what a Russian man should be: strong, quick to throw down, ready for battle.”
A sister returns to her native Yekaterinburg to write about her dead brother, confronting how little she knew of his life and what kept them apart.
On her seventh birthday, the narrator discovers she has a twelve-year-old half-brother. Sergey’s mother is going to prison and has brought him to live with their father’s Azerbaijani family. The children quickly become inseparable. At bedtime, Sergey makes the sign of the cross over his Muslim sister so that, if they die, they will go to the same heaven.
Their father wants Sergey to become a lawyer; Sergey would rather play football. When he drops out of university and returns to his mother, the siblings’ shared life gives way to chance encounters and brief messages. Only after his death at thirty does the narrator discover that for years, he had lived fifteen minutes away.
Working from photographs, social media traces and childhood memories, she tries to understand the affectionate boy she knew and the man who concealed his Azerbaijani family and wore a T-shirt declaring “I am Russian.” Her questions lead her through the migrant markets, construction sites and communal housing of post-Soviet Russia, where earning a living leaves little room for anything beyond survival, and men learn to answer hurt with violence or silence.
Dua for an Infidel is a sister’s love letter, an exploration of Russian masculinity, and a prayer woven from Muslim and Orthodox traditions: the sister’s own way of mourning her brother and honouring their childhood wish to be together after death.
On her seventh birthday, the narrator discovers she has a twelve-year-old half-brother. Sergey’s mother is going to prison and has brought him to live with their father’s Azerbaijani family. The children quickly become inseparable. At bedtime, Sergey makes the sign of the cross over his Muslim sister so that, if they die, they will go to the same heaven.
Their father wants Sergey to become a lawyer; Sergey would rather play football. When he drops out of university and returns to his mother, the siblings’ shared life gives way to chance encounters and brief messages. Only after his death at thirty does the narrator discover that for years, he had lived fifteen minutes away.
Working from photographs, social media traces and childhood memories, she tries to understand the affectionate boy she knew and the man who concealed his Azerbaijani family and wore a T-shirt declaring “I am Russian.” Her questions lead her through the migrant markets, construction sites and communal housing of post-Soviet Russia, where earning a living leaves little room for anything beyond survival, and men learn to answer hurt with violence or silence.
Dua for an Infidel is a sister’s love letter, an exploration of Russian masculinity, and a prayer woven from Muslim and Orthodox traditions: the sister’s own way of mourning her brother and honouring their childhood wish to be together after death.
A fearless, great book.
— Elena Kostyuchenko,
Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta