Review
Comment: Six stories set in Central Asia, one of them
a Pushcart Prize winner, written with deadpan irony and packing
quite a punch: Bissell's stories journey through Afghanistan,
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to some of the most deeply foreign places
on earth, with each story told through the eyes of Westerners - such
as two journalists stranded in wartime Afghanistan, a missionary struggling with his faith, or a female scientist investigating the Aral Sea - a particularly moving story (see the sidebar for more about the Aral Sea).
Publishers Weekly gives the collection a starred review
saying
'Bissell never flinches as he looks
straight into the starved hearts of his characters. In these
chilling stories of a region...
Beyond the Book
About the author & the Aral Sea: In 2001 Tom Bissell traveled throughout
Uzbekistan, spending some time in Muynak. Forty years ago
Muynak was a busy fishing port on the edge of the Aral Sea,
which was formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world
but now, due to 40 years of Soviet irrigation policy, is
mostly polluted desert. He recorded his
thoughts and observations in a memoir,
Chasing The Sea, published in 2003,
which combined the story of his travels with a chronicle of
Uzbekistan's culture and history. His second
book,
God Lives in St Petersburg,
...
