This is the chronicle of an extraordinary adventure that led Nick Rowan to some of the world's most incredible and hidden places. Intertwined with the magic of 2,000 years of Silk Road history, he recounts his experiences coupled with a remarkable realisation of just what an impact this trade route has had on our society as we know it today. Containing colourful stories, beautiful photography and vivid characters, and wrapped in the local myths and legends told by the people Nick met and who live along the route, this is both a travelogue and an education of a part of the world that has remained hidden for hundreds of years. Friendly Steppes: A Silk Road Journey reveals just how rich the region was both culturally and economically and uncovers countless new friends as Nick travels from Venice through Eastern Europe, Iran, the ancient and modern Central Asia of places like Samarkand, Bishkek and Turkmenbashi, and on to China, along the Silk Roads of today. Containing colorful stories and characters, wrapped in the local myths and legends told by the people who live along the route today, this is both an entertaining travelogue and inspiring introduction to a part of the world that has largely remained hidden from Western eyes for hundreds of years but is on the verge of retaking its central role on the international stage. Travelling through the rapidly expanding cities of China and the ancient cities of Central Asia and Iran, Friendly Steppes will have great appeal to those who want to travel to the Silk Road countries and understand the region's heart rather than simply visit its religious and historical relics as tourists. It is essential reading for those interested in discovering more of the region and its remarkable people before the world finally realizes what it potentially has to offer and changes it for better, or for worse.

Friendly Steppes: a Silk Road Journey

Travel

Nick Rowan

Asia

HERTFORDSHIRE PRESS

When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sartov Begenas

Science Fiction

The Taste of Central Asia Cook Book

Unknown, Author

This edition is Mukhtar Shahanov's authorized reprint of Walter May translation of "The Plaint of the Hunter Above the Abyss" book initially published by Atamura in 1998.  This is a book-dialogue between two famous pundits, the renowned Kirghizian novelist Chingiz Aitmatov and the legendary Kazakh poet Mukhtar Shakhanov - defending their fundamental faith in the spiritual resources of each and every human being. As such, they explore the moral significance of endlessly recurrent existential dislocations characterising everyone's sense of Personalist encounter with the world around them. A discussion taking them through the riddles posed by ancient philosophies, Turkic histories, African priest-magicians, two-fanged poisonous fish, modern zombism, and Genghis Khan's Golden Hoard: all the way to power politics in the Kremlin, the risks taken by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev as well as the duties, not to mention the obligations, of writers serving in the sphere of international public affairs.

The Plight of a Postmodern Hunter

Literature & Fiction

Aĭtmatov, Chingiz

Shakhanov, Mukhtar

Poetry

THE CITY WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE A Collection of Four Stories by Gulsifat Shahidi Viewed from the perspective of three generations, Shahidi presents a rare and poignant insight into the impact which Tajikistan's terrible civil war had on its people and its culture during the early '90s. Informed partly by her own experiences as a journalist, these beautifully interwoven stories are imbued with both her affection for her native land and her hopes for its future. The narrators - Horosho, his granddaughter Nekbaht, her husband Ali and his cousin Shernazar - each endure harrowing episodes of loss, injustice and violence but against all odds, remain driven by a will to survive, and restore peace, prosperity and new opportunities for themselves and fellow citizens.

THE CITY WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE

History

SHAHIDI, GULSIFAT

Conjuring images of nomadic horsemen, spectacular monuments, breathtaking scenery and crippling poverty, Central Asia remains an enigma. Home to the descendants of Jenghiz Khan’s Great Horde, in the nineteenth century the once powerful Silk Road states became a pawn in the ‘Great Game’ of expansion and espionage between Britain and Russia, disappearing behind what would become known as the ‘Iron Curtain’. With the collapse of the USSR, the nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were born. Since independence, Central Asia has seen one civil war, two revolutions and seven dictators.    An insightful mix of travel, history and reportage, in Does it Yurt? journalist Stephen M. Bland takes the reader on a voyage of discovery. Travelling to a desert sea, a collapsed Russian gas rig daubed the ‘Gate to Hell’ and along the ‘Heroin highway’ atop the roof of the world, the author sets out to explore these lands, unearthing the stories of the people and places behind this fascinating region.    Written sharply, vividly… If you’re looking for an antidote to chirpy travel-guide descriptions of Central Asia, then this is the book for you.’  — Sam Tranum, author of Daily Life in Turkmenbashy’s Golden Age.   ‘Packed with insights into every corner of the region.’                                       — Paul Wilson, Trailblazer Guides writer and author of The Alphabet Game.   ‘Weaves together my favourite elements of a travelogue: historical context and current observations mixed with a dry sense of humour and amusing anecdotes... Does it Yurt? will result in my journey to Central Asia being that much more rewarding.’                                        — Ric Gazarian, author of 7000KM To Go and Hit the Road India; top 500 travel blogger.   ‘Stephen M. Bland’s writing captures the magical whirlwind flavour of Central Asia in this very perceptive and insightful book. Those who have visited this wonderful part of the world will instantly recognise and reminisce on the many stories of potholed journeys by shared taxi, generous encounters with friendly locals and the inevitable run-ins with bumbling bureaucracy. Those who haven’t yet visited will be inspired to book their next adventure as soon as they can put the book down. A thrilling ride from start to finish.’                                      — Nick Rowan, author of Friendly Steppes: A Silk Road Journey   'Deserves to be shared among friends, as well as having a designated place on your shelves. Stephen M. Bland succeeds in bringing the region alive, and his story is an interesting and hard-to-decline invitation to join in his travels.'    —  Eugenette Morin, writer

Does it Yurt? Travels in Central Asia Or How I Came to Love the Stans

Bland, Stephen M

Erkin A’zam’s book in English comprises two novellas, The Din and A Tender-hearted Dwarf, and two short stories, The Writer’s Garden and A dog bit the Incomer's Daughter, which previously have been published by the Uzbek representative office of UNESCO under the title Farewell to Fairy Tales. The newly-translated novella Gooli-Gooli is published for the first time. The Din follows the career of an Uzbek playwright at a turning point in history – the turbulent and unpredictable nineteen nineties. Farhad (Fidel) Ramazan, a well-known screenwriter and now a big cheese in the film industry, receives two terse yet intriguing messages from his old friends – the famous Film Director Ravshan Akobirov and his “girlfriend of unforgettable years” Victoria Lagutina. Snatching at an unexpected chance (a film based on his script is to be screened at the Moscow International Film Festival), he heads off to that distant city where he once studied and sowed his wild oats. But his trip becomes a journey into the past, where he comes face to face with old agony, passion, and mistakes. In A Tender-hearted Dwarf, the main character is a small man who has suffered all his life because of his short stature, and now, to cap it all, he suddenly starts to go bald. Yes, it is really bad luck for him, especially since his appearance fails to reveal the true nature of his heart, which is brimming with tenderness. He feels as handsome as Alain Delon, and is prone to falling in love, inevitably and naturally, but tragically, with tall, beautiful ladies who never reciprocate his feelings. After numerous failed attempts, he finally resorts to desperate measures, and miraculously becomes taller… Heirs to the Great Sinner Sheikh San’on opens a window onto what life was like in Uzbekistan in the recent past, and shows the reader what it means to be an Uzbek man or woman today. As one author and critic puts it: “Nothing is eternal in this rapidly-changing, globalized world: time hurtles on, political systems rise and fall, the ever-hungry din roars on, inside and out, and all this takes its toll on each and every one of us. Only human nature and the soul remain unshakeable – this is the main message of.”

Heirs to the Great Sinner Sheikh San'on

A'Zam, Erkin

Genre Fiction

Set in Dushanbe, Tajikstan’s capital city, My Neighbourhood Sisters provides a snapshot of a close-knit community as it endeavours to adjust to changes induced by the country’s senseless civil war in the 1990s.    Turning the pages of Gulsifat Shakhidi’s novel is like looking through a photo album, in which the narrator, Zulfiya has lovingly pasted images of both her own family and those of her neighbours. And behind each picture lies a poignant story.  Shakhidi’s key protagonists are her close female friends; a group of proud, hardworking Tajik women who are challenged by both political and domestic unrest as they wrestle to maintain traditional family values. Their customs and local environment – the communal courtyard where neighbours gather to drink tea on a raised bed- may belong to Central Asia, but the hardships they endure are universal: infidelity, addiction, abuse, poverty, death. And it is this, so sensitively described by Shakhidi that will resonate with readers the world over.  Zulfiya’s ‘sisters’ include feisty professionals and housewives, grandmothers and new brides, and as the novel unfolds, we learn how they value being able to share their problems and support each other in times of trouble. They also rely heavily on the wisdom and experience of Zulfiya’s adopted uncle and fellow tenant, war veteran, Grigory Semenovich.  My Neighbourhood Sisters is a powerful and beautiful book filled with characters drawn from both the author’s imagination and her actual family, but in all of them, we will recognise aspects of ourselves and people from our own lives, and will perhaps be drawn to reflect on that close camaraderie between neighbours and that sense of community which in our current age, are fast disappearing.  

MY NEIGHBOURHOOD SISTERS: THE CITY WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE

SHAKHIDI, GULSIFAT

Short Stories & Anthologies

The Land Drenched in Tears is a moving history of the tumultuous years of modern China under Mao’s rule, witnessed, experienced, and told through the personal lens of an ethnic minority woman, who endured nearly 20 years imprisonment and surveillance regime as a result of her political activism in Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, located in the far west of China. Writing her autobiography as an extraordinary melange of diary and memoir, which oscillates between first-hand narrative and flashback, the author, Söyüngül Chanisheff, traces her unfortunate youth from her university years, when she founded the East Turkistan People’s Party as a result of her anger and frustration with communist China’s devastating mishandling of the socio-economic life of the people of her native land, through her subsequent imprisonment in China’s notorious labour camps as well as under the surveillance regime, to her emigration to Australia. Chanisheff’s autobiography is a rare, detailed, and authentic account of one of the most poignant and most fascinating periods of modern China. It is a microcosmic reflection of the communist regime’s tragic realities presented through the suffering and hope of a young woman who tied her fate to that of her beloved homeland.

The Land Drenched in Tears

Biographies & Memoirs

Chanisheff, Söyüngül

Leaders & Notable People

Madina Demirbash is an international relationship expert. She has lived and worked in seven different countries in the pursuit of the answer to one question: what does it take to be happy with somebody? It took her long years of personal and professional search to find but a simple answer: it takes one's decision to grow up. As soon as she started a process of conscious maturity, her life thrived. She had better friendships with different kinds of people, started her own international business, and most importantly - regained her inner strength. She later met her husband, with whom she continues to enjoy growing every day, overcoming relationship challenges. She summed up her findings in this book, demonstrating seven simple steps to develop maturity. She helps people rediscover and develop their ability to love and in that unleash their full potential as human beings, partners, and parents. She works with diverse people, starting from high school students to the married couples on the stage of divorce. She believes every person deserves and capable of building truly happy relationship. www.madinademirbash.com

The Art of Mature Love: CONNECTING TO OTHERS BY BEING CONNECTED TO YOURSELF

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Demirbash, Madina

Psychology & Counseling

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