Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia

(1)
Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia image
ISBN-10:

0375421300

ISBN-13:

9780375421303

Author(s): BISSELL, TOM
Edition: First Edition
Released: Sep 23, 2003
Publisher: Pantheon
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Related ISBN: 9780375727542

Description:

In 1960, the Aral Sea was the size of Lake Michigan: a huge body of water in the deserts of Central Asia. By 1996, when Tom Bissell arrived in Uzbekistan as a naïve Peace Corps volunteer, disastrous Soviet irrigation policies had shrunk the sea to a third its size. Bissell lasted only a few months before complications forced him to return home, but he had already become obsessed with this beautiful, brutal land.

Five years later, Bissell convinces a magazine to send him to Central Asia to investigate the Aral Sea’s destruction. There, he joins forces with a high-spirited young Uzbek named Rustam, and together they make their often wild way through the ancient cities—Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara—of this fascinating but often misunderstood part of the world. Slipping more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police, who suspect them of crimes ranging from Christian evangelism to heroin smuggling, the two young men develop an unlikely friendship as they journey to the shores of the devastated sea.

Along the way, Bissell provides a history of the Uzbeks, recounting their region’s long, violent subjugation by despots such as Jenghiz Khan and Joseph Stalin. He conjures the people of Uzbekistan with depth and empathy, and he captures their contemporary struggles to cope with Islamist terrorism, the legacy of totalitarianism, and the profound environmental and human damage wrought by the sea’s disappearance.
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes powerfully sobering, Chasing the Sea is a gripping portrait of an unfamiliar land and the debut of a gifted young writer.

Best prices to buy, sell, or rent ISBN 9780375421303




Frequently Asked Questions about Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia

You can buy the Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia book at one of 20+ online bookstores with BookScouter, the website that helps find the best deal across the web. Currently, the best offer comes from and is $ for the .

The price for the book starts from $6.19 on Amazon and is available from 43 sellers at the moment.

If you’re interested in selling back the Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia book, you can always look up BookScouter for the best deal. BookScouter checks 30+ buyback vendors with a single search and gives you actual information on buyback pricing instantly.

As for the Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia book, the best buyback offer comes from and is $ for the book in good condition.

The Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia book is in very low demand now as the rank for the book is 3,441,500 at the moment. A rank of 1,000,000 means the last copy sold approximately a month ago.

Not enough insights yet.