ABSTRACT
The legend of the Donenbai bird is a key one for the novel. Legends and myths have become an almost obligatory attribute of modern prose. The power of instinct in Karanar’s case is the logic of living nature, of life. The conflict is given in the very beginning of the novel. A hungry vixen in search of food runs to the railroad tracks. The living movement of art fits poorly into the chronological frameworks intended for it. A hundred years passed, and many great, tragic events came to pass in the land before the middle of the twentieth century, when the former, backward Russia became a multinational mighty power and industrial nation with a predominantly urban population. The events of the past few years, in the nation and in the world, at the same time made it necessary to seek new horizons; the sensation of time and space had clearly changed. Aitmatov’s novel does not come to us alone.
