Italian writer Diego Marani‘s The last of the Vostyachs was originally published in 2002, but the English translation was not published until 10 years later in 2012. How lucky we are that it was, because this book is unlikely to have been written by an English-language writer. Its focus on the relationship between language, culture and place and on darker issues like ethnic nationalism comes from a different – and particularly European – sensibility. We speakers of the world’s dominant language can, I think, be a bit oblivious to the linguistic issues faced by speakers of other languages, particularly in Europe where multiple languages live cheek by jowl. The challenge of communication is an important issue for Marani who works in Brussels for the European Union. His roles have included interpreter, translator, and policy adviser on multilingualism. Marani knows as well as anyone that language is both a cultural and political issue – and this is what he explores in this, his second novel.
However, The last of the Vostyachs is no dry tome explicating the role and value of language. Instead it is a surprising and often funny novel that weaves myth and saga, melodrama and irony through the warp of a crime thriller. It incorporates a number of literary traditions and archetypes: the wild (innocent) man set loose in the city, the spurned wife, the spirit guide, the corrupt obsessive, and the remote cottage in the woods where dastardly things happen. On the night the crimes (murders, in fact) take place, nature runs amok. Zoo animals roam the city and the temperature drops to its coldest in fifty years.
The plot centres on Ivan, who is the last of the Vostyachs, an ancient Siberian shamanic tribe. He is the only one who can speak the language, though at the novel’s opening he had not spoken it (or anything else) for twenty years, not since, as a young boy in the gulag, he’d seen his father killed. When the gulag is suddenly freed, he returns to the Byrranga Mountains but all he finds are wolves. He believes them to be his people who, to flee the soldiers, had hidden deep in caves and turned into wolves. He cannot bring them back to human form but they shadow and protect him.
Every single language is necessary to keep the universe alive
Into this mix appears the plain, ethical, Russian linguist Olga who is excited to find a speaker of a language thought to have been extinct and who sees in this language an exciting connection between Europeans and the native Americans. Her old colleague, the womanising, unethical, Finnish linguist Jarmo Aurtova is not so pleased with this threat to his theory of Finnish as the “Latin of the Baltic”, as, in effect, the master language of Europe. Jarmo sounds scarily like Hitler in his desire to prove the supremacy of a pure Finnish language:
In ancient times we were the civilised ones and they were the barbarians. We were the masters, they were the slaves. Not for nothing is the word aryan so similar to the Finnic orja, which means slave.
and
But now ‘someone’ was trying to throw Finland into the dustbin of history, together with the other conquered peoples who have no future. Aurtova was not having that …
Jarmo cares not if a language or two disappears and dies in the service of his theory. He believes that the fewer the languages the more “we’re moving towards the truth, towards the pure language”, while for Olga “with each one that dies, a little truth dies with it”. Marani, the creator of the flexible inclusive language Europanto, is on Olga’s side, on the side of plurality. She says
The true meaning of things is hidden from us; it lies beyond the bounds of any one language, and everyone tries to arrive at it with their own imperfect words. But no language can do this on its own. Every single language is necessary to keep the universe alive.
Cherish ignorance
The last of the Vostyachs is a ripping yarn that takes us from the tundra to Helsinki, through city streets, down country roads, across ice and onto the sea, as the various characters pursue their passions. But it’s the irony that conveys its main messages – and much of this irony revolves around our arch-villain and misogynst, Jarmo. His guilt as a murderer is revealed through a clue that is gorgeously ironic. In his final speech to the linguistic congress he, an academic for heaven’s sake, exhorts people to “cherish ignorance”, to not learn other people’s languages but “force” them to learn yours. And, most ironic of all, not only is the Vostyach language not destroyed, but by the end of the book, without giving too much away, “it could truly be said to be alive and flourishing” – albeit in a rather odd place.
Partway through the novel, Olga says to Jarmo of Finns that “to communicate with the rest of the world you have to learn another one, you have to venture out among words which are not your own, which you have borrowed from others”. In The last of the Vostyachs, Marani has ventured out and written something wild and rather risky. In doing so, he has produced a novel that’s not only fun to read but also gives the mind much to think about.
Lisa at ANZLitLovers read and enjoyed this book earlier this year.
Diego Marani
The last of the Vostyachs
(Trans. by Judith Landry)
Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2012
176pp.
ISBN: 978192196885 (Kindle ed.)
Whispering Gums 
Hurray for you for featuring Marani. He is a genuine original. Have you read “New Finnish Grammar”, which is preoccupied with similar issues of language and identity? I have just noticed that he has published something described as’ a detective novel’ called “God’s Dog”
so I’ll be lining up for that at the library.
The books remind me of Pascal Mercier’s “Perlmann’s Silence”, a black comedy that muses on the ways in which our self-image is linguistically created by the telling and retelling of stories, to ourselves and to others. It’s a great read (but a much bigger book!)
Thanks Joan … I have of course heard of his first novel but haven’t read it, and had recently heard of the latest. I’m keen to read more. The Mercier sounds interesting too.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this – I reviewed New Finnish Grammar and interviewed Marani for my blog Books Now! earlier this year. He is a true original, a passionate linguist and believes that the exchange of languages is the basis for true “entente cordiale” .
Ah thanks Dina. I’ll check out your interview. I love his open attitude to language/s.
I must say that in learning another language you do have to ‘venture out into words which are not your own’ – and this really makes you rethink communication. Marani’s book sounds contemporary and relevant in today’s very mixed EU. And I think I ought to read it in Italian!
Lol, Catherine, I think you ought!
I’ve got his new one to read, Sue:) It’s called God’s Dog!
Yes, Lisa, I think you told me that. Is it similar subject matter … Or have you not checked?
Oh dear, senior’s moment *blush*.
Well, it is Friday, and it’s been a long week.
God’s Dog is a kind of absurdist thriller: the central character Salazar is a secret agent who’s supposed to fight the enemies of the church. There’s one in particular who’s out to sabotage the pope’s canonisation. It’s set in a not-too-distant future, and Salazar has a Swahili-speaking chimp called Django. So, LOL, it sounds quite different, eh?
Sounds very different … And sorry I didn’t mean to make you feel old! It was just that I hadn’t heard of the book until you mentioned it!
*chuckle* It’s everyday life that makes me feel old, Sue! Never mind, only three weeks to go and then long glorious days of idleness:)
We know the feeling! (The every day making us feel old, that is!) As retirees we don’t seem to get long glorious days of idleness. I think therefore you should keep working – LOL.
Yes, ma’am!
I enjoyed this, but to be honest it’s not as good as ‘New Finnish Grammar’. It’s much lighter and not one I’m itching to reread…
Thanks Tony … I’ll try to read New Finnish grammar.
This sounds so good! Entertaining and thought-provoking both. I love books like that. Another one for the TBR!
LOL Stefanie … I’m sure the TBR has room!
I also loved New Finnish Grammar and was a tad disappointed in The Last of the Vostyachs. I look forward to reading another one by Marani whenever he gets to it.
Nothing to do with him (he’s written plenty) – talk to the publishers and translators 😉
I reckon you’re right Tony. I wonder if authors have any say?
The next one is out Bekah … Lisa has it. I think it’s called God’s own … Or something like that. She says it’s very different.
Yes – so often a problem. 😦 But I’ll watch for whatever comes our English-speaking way – sad to say – I should read Italian, so many of my favorite authors write in that language – Umberto Eco, Elsa Morante, Diego Marani, Elena Ferrante – etc. (But then I should probably read Russian, Spanish, German, French – etc – too. – LOL!)
That will fill up your retirement time Bekah, learning those languages!
Another thing to do on my retirement is to learn how to reply instead of just make new comments. Thanks for the heads up on the God’s Dog!
LOL Bekah – you have REPLIED here rather than created a new comment … or is this not what you mean?
Yes, that’s exactly what I meant – I did it right only because I paid attention. (LOL!)
Ah, yes, well that helps! Well done!
I was planning to read New Finnish Grammar first, but given how fun this sounds and given several comments above saying it’s the weaker of the two I might put this ahead of it.
Nice review! He seems to be a really interesting author.
He sure is Max … I think a few read this first though it’s not his first and liked it well enough to want to read more. I’m keen to read New Finnish Grammar to see what I think. This ine us a pretty quick read.