First Lines of "The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years"

"The hungry vixen had to be patient as she searched for prey among the dried-out gullies and the bare ravines. Following along the intertwining, giddily wandering tracks of the small burrowing animals - now furiously digging out a marmot's lair, now waiting until a small jeroba which had been hiding in an underground storm channel jumped out into the open where he could be quickly dispatched - she moved quietly as a mouse, slowly and purposefully working her way towards the distant railway."

- Chingiz Aitmatov, from The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years.

I"m 67 pages into this one and really liking it so far. It came to my attention in an article describing Aimatov as the Kyrgyz García Márquez. So far it's playing out as an interesting juxtaposition between standard Russian "village prose" and speculative hard science fiction. Fascinating stuff, with engaging prose despite being translated from Russian.