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"In 1960, the Aral Sea was the size of Lake Michigan: a huge body of water in the deserts of central Asia. By 1996, when Tom Bissell arrived in Uzbekistan as a naive Peace Corps volunteer, disastrous Soviet irrigation policies had shrunk the sea to a third its size. Bissell lasted only a few months before complications forced him to return home." "Five years later, Bissell convinces a magazine to send him to Central Asia to investigate the Aral Sea's destruction. There he joins forces with a high-spirited young Uzbek named Rustam, and together they make their often wild way through the ancient cities - Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara - of this fascinating but often misunderstood part of the world. Slipping more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police, who suspect them of crimes ranging from Christian evangelism to heroin smuggling, the two young men develop an unlikely friendship as they journey to the shores of the devastated sea." "Along the way, Bissell provides a history of the Uzbeks, recounting their region's long, violent subjugation by despots such as Jenghiz Khan and Joseph Stalin. He conjures the people of Uzbekistan with depth and empathy, and he captures their contemporary struggles to cope with Islamist terrorism, the legacy of totalitarianism, and the profound environmental and human damage wrought by the sea's disappearance."--Jacket.
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Previews available in: English
Showing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia
October 12, 2004, Vintage
in English
037572754X 9780375727542
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2
Chasing the sea: being a narrative of a journey through Uzbekistan, including descriptions of life therein, culminating with an arrival at the Aral Sea, the world's worst man-made ecological catastrophe, in one volume
2003, Pantheon Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0375421300 9780375421303
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3
Chasing the sea: being a narrative of a journey through Uzbekistan, including descriptions of life therein, culminating with an arrival at the Aral Sea, the world's worst man-made ecological catastrophe, in one volume
2003, Pantheon Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0375421300 9780375421303
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 359-370) and index.
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Work Description
In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a naive 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.
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