"Maybe time in itself does not exist at all, and there exists instead only a spider's web of endless histories and tales tracing patterns in the boundless and deafening deep of eternity? Maybe Time is but a means of retelling them and listening to them?"

Requiem for the Living is the life story of an orphan boy who grows up alone in a mountain village in the Caucasus and then leaves his home to find fame but not happiness. Wherever he tries to settle down he seems always to cause chaos and despair in a hitherto peaceful community. When he leaves the inhabitants are changed and resentful, living with the consequences of the events that he has set in motion, questioning the nature and the basis of their former existence. No matter how rootless the boy may seem or wish to be, human contact and the bonds of love and family are inescapable and catch up with him in the end. The boy's unique abilities and alienation underscore the distinctive Caucasian culture and their strict code of honor.

Alan Cherchesov was born in 1962 and lives in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. A graduate of the North-Ossetian University, he lectures there on world literature and edits a university journal on cultural studies. He is the founder and director of the Institute of Civilization in Vladikavkaz, which provides alternative education in the humanities. An Ossetian writing in Russian, Cherchesov is the author of two novels and a number of short stories. His two novels were short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize and his novel Wreath on the Grave of the Wind was awarded the prize of the Russian Academy of Critics in 2001.