Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia

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Synopsis
This award-winning foreign correspondent&’s vivid account of Central Asia&’s recent history &“reads like a novel but is the stuff of hard-won journalism&” (Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan). Here are the stories of two revolutions, a massacre of unarmed civilians, a civil war, a drug-smuggling highway, brazen corruption schemes, contract hits, and larger-than-life characters who may be villains, heroes, or possibly both. Restless Valley is a gripping, contemporary chronicle of Central Asia from a veteran journalist with extensive experience in the region. Both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have struggled with the challenges of post-Soviet, independent statehood, and both became entangled in America&’s Afghan campaign when the United States built military bases within their borders. Meanwhile, the region was becoming a key smuggling hub for Afghanistan&’s booming heroin trade. Through the eyes of local participants—the powerful and the powerless—Shishkin reconstructs how Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have ricocheted between extreme repression and democratic strivings; how alliances with the United States and Russia have brought mixed blessings; and how Stalin&’s legacy of ethnic gerrymandering continues to incite conflict today. &“The weird, the strange, the corrupt, and the grand are all evident . . . [Shishkin] relentlessly pursues and then tells the stories of the most corrupt and powerful and also the most sincere and admirable characters who inhabit these mountains.&” —Ahmed Rashid, The New York Review of Books
Copyright:
2013

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
329 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780300185980
Related ISBNs:
9780300205916
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Philip Shishkin
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Military, Nonfiction, Politics and Government
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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