My Soleiman is Gone contains fifteen of Ikebair Mijiti's very best novellas and short stories. A prominent contemporary Kazakh author, who writes in both Mandarin and Kazakh, Ikebair is able to bring to life on the page the lush hills, clear skies, brilliant sun, and grazing livestock of the lands north of the Great Wall; the plainsman brave enough to fight a black bear with a dagger and so tenderhearted as to sit by a gurgling spring with a girl he loves; the musician who travels far and wide with his tent to keep his ancient art alive; the soaring blue pigeons whose flight echoes the hopeful dreams of youth; the snowy mountain fading into the distance, which rouses a yearning or home.

In The Lame Mustang, Blue Pigeon, Red Calf, and My Soleiman is Gone, Ikebair Mijiti writes in the language of nature. In doing so, he stirs up the poetry inherent in the lives of the Kazakh people, conjures the spirit in the region's sacred plains, and evokes the sublime beauty and beating heart of his homeland.

About the author

Ikebair Mijiti is a Kazakh writer, who was born in Huocheng County, Xinjiang in 1954. His works, which range from stories to essay collections, criticism to translations, include Oh, Fifteen-year-old Halliday, Phoenix Flowers Bloom, and Abai Proverbs; they have been translated widely, into English, Russian, and Japanese, among other languages. In 1979, he received the National Short Story Prize and, in 2015, was awarded the Golden Medal of Kazakhstan; he has won the National Prize for Ethnic Minority Literature three times. He was Vice-Secretary of the China Writers Publishing Group Party Committee and Vice-Chair of the China Writers Publishing Group Management Committee, as well as editor for China Writers. He is now Vice-Chair of the Chinese Film and Literature Society.