Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart

Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia

It sounds like the stuff of a fiction thriller: two revolutions, a massacre of unarmed civilians, a civil war, a drug-smuggling highway, brazen corruption schemes, contract hits, and larger-than-life characters who may be villains . . . or heroes . . . or possibly both. Yet this book is not a work of fiction. It is instead a gripping, firsthand account of Central Asiaâ€™s unfolding history from 2005 to the present.
Philip Shishkin, a prize-winning journalist with extensive on-the-ground experience in the tumultuous region above Afghanistanâ€™s northern border, focuses mainly on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Both nations have struggled with the enormous challenges of post-Soviet independent statehood; both became entangled in Americaâ€™s Afghan campaign when U.S. military bases were established within their borders. At the same time, the region was developing into a key smuggling hub for Afghanistanâ€™s booming heroin trade. Through the eyes of local participantsâ€”the powerful and the powerlessâ€”Shishkin reconstructs how Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have ricocheted between extreme repression and democratic strivings, how alliances with the United States and Russia have brought mixed blessings, and how Stalinâ€™s legacy of ethnic gerrymandering incites conflict even now.

Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia