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Framed by the 9-day Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 1994, The Time of Light is skilfully weaved from historical narration and tales — tales of war and tales of women — as two men talk. Markus, a former German soldier devastated by the outbreak of this new war, seeks atonement from an Armenian priest for his part in the Nazi invasion of Russia. Captured at the Battle of Stalingrad, Markus never returned to Germany, but tried instead to work out his destiny in the country and among the people he feels he has desecrated. His two boyhood friends who fought with him and survive the battle follow different paths, but Markus turns his back on everything, including his wife and son, who ultimately goes in search of his vanished father. Clear-eyed about the savagery of war, harrowing in its evocation of emotion, the novel has much to tell us in the wake of the Rwandan and Kosovan tragedies.
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