"Reading Farewell,
Aylis is like sitting by the fire at night with the older men
of the village and listening to their stories, which in truth are the oral
history of a people and a region, which in truth could turn out to be
prophecies of our own lives. ... In [the essay Farewell,
Aylis, Aylisli] writes, 'And I want to serve my motherland not as a patriot
but as a writer.' And that is what he has done with these stories, making him
perhaps the true patriot who does what is truly needed for his country and not
what pleases and flatters. One, however, needs to read him first and foremost
as a writer and be enamored of the allure of his storytelling." -Poupeh
Missaghi, Asymptote

"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