Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780375727542)

In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a na-ve Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet irrigation policies. Joining up with an exuberant translator named Rustam, Bissell slips more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police as he makes his often wild way to the devastated sea.

In Chasing the Sea, Bissell combines the story of his travels with a beguiling chronicle of Uzbekistan's striking culture and long history of violent subjugation by despots from Jenghiz Khan to Joseph Stalin. Alternately amusing and sobering, this is a gripping portrait of a fascinating place, and the debut of a singularly gifted young writer.

Author: Tom Bissell
ISBN-10: 037572754X
ISBN-13: 9780375727542
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 10/12/2004
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.06h x 5.24w x 0.86d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 12/05/2004 pg. 83
Kliatt 03/01/2005 pg. 41