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    Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia
    Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia
    Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia
    Ebook421 pages8 hours

    Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia

    By Monica Whitlock

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Along the banks of the river once called Oxus lie the heartlands of Central Asia: Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Catapulted into the news by events in Afghanistan, just across the water, these strategically important, intriguing and beautiful countries remain almost completely unknown to the outside world.

    In this book, Monica Whitlock goes far beyond the headlines. Using eyewitness accounts, unpublished letters and firsthand reporting, she enters into the lives of the Central Asians and reveals a dramatic and moving human story unfolding over three generations.

    There is Muhammadjan, called 'Hindustani', a diligent seminary student in the holy city of Bukhara until the 1917 revolution tore up the old order. Exiled to Siberia as a shepherd and then conscripted into the Red Army, he survived to become the inspiration for a new generation of clerics. Henrika was one of tens of thousands of Poles who walked and rode through Central Asia on their way to a new life in Iran, where she lives to this day. Then there were the proud Pioneer children who grew up in the certainty that the Soviet Union would last forever, only to find themselves in a new world that they had never imagined. In Central Asia, the extraordinary is commonplace and there is not a family without a remarkable story to tell.

    Land Beyond the River is both a chronicle of a century and a clear-eyed, authoritative view of contemporary events.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 27, 2014
    ISBN9781466872394
    Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia
    Author

    Monica Whitlock

    Monica Whitlock has worked for the BBC World Service since 1991 and is the author of Beyond the Oxus and Land Beyond the River. She first went to Afghanistan in 1992 and was the BBC Central Asia correspondent from 1995 to 1998, with offices in Tashkent, Dushanbe and Almaty. Since then she has reported from Iran and Syria and returned to Central Asia several times, reporting from Dushanbe and Tashkent in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the United States in September 2001. She now lives in London.

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    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      In terms of an in-depth and well-researched work on the highly complex politics of Central Asia, I have to give this a *5. Being a rather lowbrow, non-politically astute person (albeit one with a fascination in this region), I have to say it took a concerted effort to get through it all. The author does her utmost to weave human interest stories into the events of the Afghan War and Tajik Civil War... but the complexity; the behind-the-scenes string pulling of Russia and the US; the puppet amir; the hotblooded islamic movements; the lies, propaganda and double-dealing left me with a kind of confused impression.Perhaps the main thing that struck me was the huge interconnectedness of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and ...what I always see as a separate entity...Afghanistan. People crossed the border constantly, as problems in one place led them to flee.As the Taleban are rising in power (published 2003), I sort of gained a confused impression as to how the terrible mess that had arisen gave them a foothold. Certainly the superpowers have to shoulder their share of responsibility.Very impressive research. Glad to finish though!!!

      1 person found this helpful

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