Customer Reviews

Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia

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This modern history of Central Asia is a primer for those who's knowledge of the region is scarce. BBC Central Asia correspondent Whitlock prepares the reader for the unfolding and unravelling of soviet central asia with the highlights of the regions 20th century history. Using the letters and verbal reminiscences of local people, from ordinary workers, to mullahs, to local and national leaders, she guides us effortlessly from the early parts of the 20th century through the collapse of the soviet state in 1989 and prepares the reader for the events which follow. Monica Whitlock uses archive material and local resources to conjer a descriptive narrative of the region which won't be bettered for years to come

Land Beyond the River provides one of the most vivid pictures available of the complex relationship between religion and society in Central Asia. Whitlock, as Martha Olcott of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, a BBC journalist who lived in Tashkent, which she used as a base to report on the region, offers a highly personalized history of Central Asia. Her vehicle is exploring the lives of two "witnesses" whose lives stretched through the decades of Soviet rule: Muhammadjan Hindustani, a cleric from Kokand who lived out his life in Dushanbe, and Sadr-e Zia, an intellectual from Bukhara. She uses their own words, the memories of their families, and accounts of more recent prominent figures whose activities were in some way touched by one or another of these men.

Whitlock is an excellent journalist who developed relationships of great trust with the people who turned over their family materials to her. In the case of Sadr-e Zia, a lot of the material Whitlock used was being edited for publication at the time her book went to press, but she is more vague about the written record that informs her discussion of Hindustani. This is not surprising, given that the Tajik cleric was forced to work and teach in semi-secrecy until nearly his very last days, in 1989 when Mikail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost' (openness) changed state attitudes toward religion.

Working in what must have been conditions of partial (or even near total) secrecy while living in Central Asia, Whitlock does not seem to have been given a full portrait of Hindustani, who actually played an even greater role in training many of today's clerics and setting the tone for current religious debates than Whitlock credits him. For this reason, the book is more a fascinating keyhole through which to view hitherto virtually unknown lives than a scholarly contribution.

This is a compelling story well told. Highly recommended for anyone wanting an inside view of current events in Central Asia

This comprehensive survey of the Mid East/Soviet areas of Central Asia offers the eyewitness perspective of BBC foreign correspondent Whitlock, who offers a history of the 206th century in following two central Asian families through social and political changes in their regions. What evolves is an excellent set of interviews which blends with unpublished letters and diaries from two families to present a personal account of Central Asia's modern politics and society.

This was a book that I had to read for a sociology class on Central Asia. Out professor said that we were reading it as a break from our technical reading and that it would be enjoable as it was supposedly a good novel.

When I started reading this thing I found that it was nothing like a decent novel. It is simply a narrative of a handful (around 5 if I remember) character's lives and all the people they meet, things they do, etc. during a pretty interesting period of history. While the history is interesting and you can learn a lot from this book, I warn you that it is a very dry read, filled with names, dates, places, etc.

Don't get this if you want an engrossing, entertaining read. That's it.