A book for teens ‘The Greyhound dogs’ by Farkhat Tamendarov

‘The Greyhound dogs’ is the first prose book of Farkhat Tamendarov, who is a member of the Writers' Union of Qazaqstan, a member of the Qazaq PEN Club, a laureate of international literary competitions and the Editor-in-Chief of the literary almanac ‘Literary Alma-Ata’. The adventure story was published in 2018.

As the author says, the book was created with great difficulty, because by that time he was a poet. He wrote and published five books of poetry.

This is an adventure story about five teenagers who followed for their dream notwithstanding the difficulties. Each of them, of course, has his own dream. But one thing unites all of them - they dream of a different life, of freedom, and therefore they decide to escape from dull daily existence into the unknown destination. The experience they gain shapes them down. They met challenges that could drag people down, but the teens did not give up. Along with betrayal, they knew what true love and friendship are.

The author believes, that writing for adolescence is difficult and ‘unprofitable’, because it covers only three to four years of the person and then the teenager matures and becomes interested in reading literature for adults.

‘And it would seem that we are losing this segment. I tried to fill this gap, because an adolescence period is very important, it will determine how a person will view and interact with the world as an adult. He or she may do something wrong being a teenager, but the experience he or she gets will help them in future’ - explains Farkhat Tamendarov.

The story ‘The Greyhound dogs’ contains a lot of exciting events and adventures with elements of phantasy. The author skillfully interweaves in the book the present with the distant past, with history and science.

The protagonist of the story, a teenager Jussup, who is a descendant of Genghis Khan, finds himself on the ship of the English sea captain Sir Francis Drake, makes a round-the-world trip with him, helps Isaac Newton discover his law of universal gravitation and brings chocolate to Europe.

The author would like to write a continuation of this story about the matured Jussup. According to critics, the writer feels his audience. Despite the fact that he is much older than heroes of his books and his readers, the age difference between them is not at all visible: it seems that their peer, who knows their life, their language and psychology, tells about their adventures.

The book ‘The Greyhound dogs’ is a book about what a person is ready to do to make his dream come true. And the more mature we become, the less chance we have of it. This is a book about the relationship between adolescents, between parents and children. Therefore, it is worth reading not only the younger generation, but also their parents.