A mesmerising trip across Central Asia . . . A fascinating travelogue Financial Times Erika
Fatland takes the reader on a journey that is unknown to even the most seasoned globetrotter.
The five former Soviet Republics' Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan all became independent when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. How have these
countries developed since then? In the Kyrgyzstani villages Erika Fatland meets victims of the
widely known tradition of bride snatching she visits the huge and desolate Polygon in
Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union tested explosions of nuclear bombs she meets Chinese shrimp
gatherers on the banks of the dried out Aral Sea and she witnesses the fall of a dictator. She
travels incognito through Turkmenistan a country that is closed to journalists. She meets
exhausted human rights activists in Kazakhstan survivors from the massacre in Osh in 2010
German Menonites that found paradise on the Kyrgyzstani plains 200 years ago. During her
travels she observes how ancient customs clash with gas production and she witnesses the
underlying conflicts between ethnic Russians and the majority in a country that is slowly
building its future in Nationalist colours. In these countries that used to be the furthest
border of the Soviet Union life follows another pace of time. Amidst the treasures of
Samarkand and the bleakness of Soviet architecture Erika Fatland moves with her openness
towards the people and the landscapes around her. A rare and unforgettable travelogue.
Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson
