The three novellas of Farewell, Aylis take place over decades of transition in a country that resembles modern-day Azerbaijan. A new essay by the author that reflects on the political firestorm surrounding these novellas and his current situation as a prisoner of conscience in Azerbaijan, was commissioned especially for this edition.

"Working from Russian translations of the original Azeri (two by the author himself), Young has given great attention to Aylisli's unique style that combines elements of socialist realism, Middle Eastern and Persian tales, and social satire. Each piece is set in a different time and place and is populated by different protagonists, yet a continuity exists across the whole. What unites these four works is their engagement with historic trauma and the way hushed-up violence and wrongdoing are transmitted through generations, destroying not only individual lives but also the character of the village, region, and country that guilty people inhabit. ? A writer, Aylisli teaches us, has no allegiances to a country, an ethnicity, a religion, not even to his own birthplace. 'But he's always responsible for the moral appearance of his own people, for the spiritual state of his own fellow citizens.' And this writer has found the spiritual state of his fellow citizens to be in a dire condition. ? As Farewell, Aylis concludes, it leaves a reader with a sense that an individual voice trying to resist the culture of violence is powerless against the status quo; nonetheless, Aylisli's voice feels necessary and urgent." -Olga Zilberbourg, The Common