15m
Stone Breakers
Author:
Vrtanes Papazyan (70)
Reader: Hayk Petrosyan (258)
Category:
Prose (621)
Short story (657)
Armenian literature (374)
Age Recommendation: 16+
"Stone Breakers" presents a sharp social contrast, as the narrator watches two Persian laborers breaking rocks in the scorching sun from a comfortable balcony. The workers are intensely tempted by a vendor selling sweet buns (bulki), but must deny themselves this small 5-kopek luxury, painfully aware of their 45-kopek daily wage and their debts . The story is a poignant look at poverty and their fate "to see and not be able to enjoy".