Тоска по отцу, или День, когда рухнул мир

The terrible events associated with the Semipalatinsk test site are reflected in Rollan Seisenbayev’s story “The Day the World Collapsed,” which is dedicated to the people of Nevada and Semipalatinsk. Through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy, the story conveys the tragedy of the people and their homes, juxtaposing their suffering and pain with the suffering of nature. The catastrophe facing the inhabitants occurs in parallel with the catastrophe of nature being destroyed. A calamity of such scale is unmatched in human history. Seisenbayev’s text is one of the rare instances of nuclear catastrophe—a real threat of the twentieth century—being described by a Kazakh author. -- Abai Center