Two books that put you in Uzbekistan. One, The Railway, is by a writer from Uzbekistan and set there. The other is a wider pick, by someone who knows the place well.
Uzbekistan's national poet is Alisher Navoi, a fifteenth-century writer whose Khamsa, a set of five long poems, remains central to its literature. The oral tradition is just as strong: epics such as Alpamish are sung by bards called bakhshis. Under Soviet rule many writers also worked in Russian, and little Uzbek writing has been translated into English, so the books available come largely from translation or from visitors' accounts.
Hamid Ismailov's The Railway, translated from Russian, is a comic portrait of a small Soviet-era railway town where Islamic tradition, Soviet bureaucracy and village life mingle. Eugene Schuyler's Turkistan is a detailed account of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Kokand in the 1870s, just after Russian conquest. Craig Murray's Murder in Samarkand is a memoir of his time as British ambassador, set against the police state and corruption of the early 2000s.
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A comic, layered portrait of a small Soviet-era Uzbek railway town, mixing Islamic tradition, Soviet bureaucracy and everyday village life.
By long-time residents and outsiders who know the place well, or folk tales, poetry and history with a strong feel for Uzbekistan.
A memoir of the British ambassador's posting in Karimov-era Tashkent and Samarkand, showing the police state, corruption and daily life in the early 2000s.
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