Product Description

The only thing most people know about Kazakhstan is that homeland to Borat - and he isn't even real. Actually this vast place - the last unknown inhabited country in the world - is far more surprising and entertaining. For one thing, it is as varied as Europe, combining stupendous wealth, grinding poverty, exotic traditions and a mad dash for modernity. Crisscrossing a vanished land, Christopher Robbins finds Eminem by a shrinking Aral Sea, goes eagle-hunting, visits the scene of Dostoyevsky's doomed first love, takes up residence beside one-time neighbour Leon Trotsky and visits some of the most beautiful, unspoilt places on earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81607 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review
"Magnificent... a consummate and classic portrait of one of the great picaresque personalities of the twentieth century" Simon Callow, Guardian "A complete delight" William Boyd, Daily Telegraph "Hilarious and unexpectedly moving" The Times"

Daily Telegraph
'extremely entertaining and informative...hilarious.'

The News of the World
`Cracking tale...both hysterically funny and surprisingly
moving...you will savour every page.'

Customer Reviews

Much more than a travel book
It's marketed as a travel book but it's much more than that. It gives a very good insight into Kazakhstan past and present including the political/economic developments. The author spent days talking to and traveling around with President Nazarbayev. The president comes across as a very smart guy who has done really well given the appalling situation he inherited. The author obviously liked the country but the book doesn't come across as propaganda.

It contains the inside story on how the USSR really worked, what the gulag was like from people who survived it, how and why the new currency (the tenge) was secretly planned, how arab countries offered to pay them to keep their SS18 ICBMs, and how Iran and Iraq tried to buy weapons grade material.

This book is a serious bit of writing and impressed me a lot. If you want to know more about a country which is in the news because of oil then I recommend this book highly.

Made me smile
I have visited Kazkahstan a few times (with work) and am amazed at the whole country and its people, this book gave me a warm feeling in my tummy recalling memories. It also made me even more eager for my next and following visits. The writing is "make you smile" funny and also has some serous information and facts about this massisve and well natural-resourced country - the home of Apples, Trousers and probaly the King Arthur legend (that's really hard for a Welsh girl to admit!) Enjoy it - it's all good and not a bit like Borat.

Forget about Borat
Witty and informative, this book has a good mix of history and current observations on a huge country that few people know about. Interesting facts like apples originating in Kazakhstan, and King Arthur being a Kazakh are balanced with humourous observations on life in modern day Kazakhstan and the suffering the country endured during the Soviet era.

Other than being able to point Kazakhstan out on a map, I knew little about the country, but this didn't stop me enjoying the book. I'm sure those that have been there will find it enjoyable too.