Susan Hill's THE VOWS OF SILENCE Continues the Adventures of Detective Simon Serrailler

More praise on Susan Hill's magnificent mysteries set in the English cathedral town of Lafferton: "In The Vows of Silence, the fourth Simon Serrailler mystery, Susan Hill picks up where she left off in The Risk of Darkness. Detective Chief Superintendent Serrailler remains a loner who relishes his job and enjoys his passion for drawing. His warm and compassionate sister, Dr. Cat Deerbon, her husband, Chris, and their three small children return from their nine-month stay in Australia, and Simon resumes his old habit of dropping by to hang out with Cat and her family. However, there are changes in store for the residents of the cathedral town of Lafferton, and not all of them are pleasant.

Hill has never shied away from depicting life’s tragedies. Characters whom we have come to care about experience misfortune and heartbreak, and the author makes no attempt to sugarcoat their grief. The whodunit involves an expert marksman who shoots young women and then disappears, leaving behind no forensic evidence. As the number of victims rises, Simon and his team pull out all the stops to catch the predator. However, without witnesses or any helpful leads, the detectives are frustrated by their inability to apprehend the killer.

The strength of this book lies in its lucid prose style, beautiful descriptive writing, smooth dialogue, and superb characterizations. There are touching scenes between a fifty-two year old man and a forty-six year old woman who are dating for the first time after losing their spouses. Hill sensitively captures their reluctance to take a risk with someone new, lest they experience further heartbreak. The author suggests that all change brings with it an element of uncertainty. When someone takes on a new job, establishes a new relationship, or moves to a new location, there is always the possibility of disappointment. However, if we remain mired in our comfortable and familiar routines out of fear, we may miss out on wonderful experiences and satisfying relationships. . . Susan Hill draws us in and keeps us in thrall, as we eagerly wait to learn what will happen next. " - Mostly Fiction

Dilip Hiro's INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA Reviewed in Financial Times

David Pilling of the Financial Times surveys a crop of new books on Asia and calls Dilip Hiro's Inside Central Asia "a detailed and nuanced overview. The book is thorough and diligent, but the country chapters – as opposed to the thematic introduction and conclusion – plod chronologically. Still, it is the most comprehensive of the four and most deliberately brings out themes of ethnic tensions, religious intolerance and struggle for political identity. For many, these lands at the crossroads of the Eurasian continent, between the splintered Soviet empire and the rising Chinese one, remain a mystery. These books, Hiro’s particularly, help put that right. They reveal what we should have already known: that the grand themes and tragedies of the lands Marco Polo explored and Genghis Khan conquered so long ago are mirror images of our own."

John Freely's THE GRAND TURK Examines the Life and Times of Sultan Mehmet II

In a new book released this month, scholar and historian John Freely looks at the life of Sultan Mehmet the Conquerer, who captured Constantinople at the age of 21 and went on to reshape the world. The Grand Turk is a vivid and detailed account of the life and conquests of the man described by contemporary Christian rulers as “Ruler of the Glorious Empire of the Turks, the Present Terror of the World.” Mehmet was the seventh Ottoman sultan. He was only 21 years old when he brought an end to the centuries-old Byzantine Empire. During his 30-year reign, he extended the borders of his realm across Anatolia (then called Asia Minor) and into Europe, reaching into Hungary and Italy. Three popes called for Crusades against him. Why? Because the city of Constantinople was more than just a city. When Constantine the Great moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium in A.D. 330, he did not just change the course of history, he made this city into the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. As such, it became a jewel almost as religiously important as Jerusalem itself.

First-time Novelist Amy Foster has Oprah, Michael Buble, dad David in her corner

Nick Patch of the Canadian Press follows the debut of Amy S. Foster's novel When Autumn Leaves: "It's not often that an aspiring first-time novelist gets the benefit of direct feedback and advice from Oprah Winfrey. So when the talk-show queen and publishing-industry saviour recommended Amy Foster change the setting of her first book, When Autumn Leaves, from Massachusetts to her native British Columbia, Foster listened. "You can't deny Oprah," Foster said in a recent telephone interview. "When Oprah tells you to do something, you do it."

Then again, Foster isn't your typical first-time novelist. The daughter of Canadian superproducer David Foster, Amy is an accomplished songwriter in her own right, having penned tunes for Josh Groban, Diana Krall, Destiny's Child and Andrea Bocelli. Her most famous collaborations have been with Michael Buble, including "Haven't Met You Yet," the first single from his latest record, "Crazy Love." That album was released Oct. 9 and has been No. 1 on the album charts in the two weeks since in both Canada and the United States.

When Autumn Leaves was released Oct. 6. So yes, Foster has had a pretty good month. "It's like a whirlwind," said the 36-year-old. "It's the best time. It's amazing. I couldn't have planned it any better." She would certainly seem to be off to a good start in her publishing career. When Autumn Leaves is just the first in a series that Foster says will ultimately number 14 books. She's nearly completed the next three books. The first novel centres on Autumn, a shopkeeper and member of a sisterhood of witches who oversee Avening, a quaint little fictional town nestled off the coast of British Columbia. A promotion within the sisterhood means Autumn needs to select her successor from a group of 13 local women, each of whom possesses a latent magical ability.

"I think that is really the big overarching metaphor, is that we all have these gifts, and sometimes it just takes a spark to let the magic inside of us - god, that sounds so cheesy - but to let the magic inside of us, to reveal it to the rest of the world," Foster said. "I really hope it is empowering for women. I really hope that women read this and feel like there's potential inside of them that's lurking that they might not have known. That they're stronger than they think they are." And Avening, an impossibly picturesque hamlet, is an integral part of the book's charm. "The idea for the town was I wanted to create a place that if I went there, I would want to stay there and live there forever," she said.

That's where Winfrey came in. Foster met her once, in scenic Desolation Sound, B.C. ("I blurted that I was writing a book, and I acted like a complete moron because it was Oprah," Foster recalls.) Winfrey, admiring her sweeping surroundings, couldn't understand why Foster chose Massachusetts for the book's setting. "She said: 'So you wrote a book about magic that takes place in New England. I thought you said you were from here. Did you go to school in New England?' I said no," remembered Foster, who moved back to B.C. from Nashville earlier this year. "So she said, 'So you wrote a book about magic and you didn't set it here, in the most magical place on earth, where you're actually from?' "It wasn't like lightning bolts or anything came out of the sky when she said it - it wasn't threatening at all - but it was a very kind suggestion." Foster's father, on the other hand, doesn't have much advice for her as she enters a new stage of her career. "He gives me lots of advice, but he's a musician, he's a rock star, I don't know how much of a reader he is," she said.

A DANGEROUS LIASION Examines the Lives of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

France Magazine takes a look at A Dangerous Liasion, by Carole Seymour-Jones in the current issue: "Seymour-Jones examined new primary sources for this dual biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, conducting fresh interviews and delving into previously unavailable correspondence. The result is a page-turning account of the lifelong relationship between two of the 20th century’s most influential intellectuals against the backdrop of their wartime activities, their political and social engage- ment, and Sartre’s enduring blind spot vis-à-vis the Soviet Union."

Overlook Thriller Writers at The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction

Thanks to everyone who attended last night's "thrilling" evening with Overlook authors Peter Quinn, Laura Joh Rowland, and R.J. Ellory. And a very special thanks to Kristin, Jordan, Esther, and all the staff at The Center for Fiction for their gracious welcome.

The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction was founded in 1820 by merchants and their clerks before the advent of public libraries. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was thriving as one of the foremost cultural institutions in the United States, with an extraordinary collection of books in the humanities, and a popular lecture program that featured such renowned speakers as William Makepeace Thackeray, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain. The Library offered classes on many subjects and was considered a meeting place for social and educational pursuits. The Library currently focuses on collecting and lending fiction, both literary and popular, presenting literary programs for the general public, and renting low-cost space to writers and other literary organizations. It has developed one of the best collections of fiction in the United States and had benefited from six National Endowment for the Humanities grants for literary programming in the past ten years.

Laura Joh Rowland, Peter Quinn, and R.J. Ellory Read from New Works at The Center for Fiction Tonight in NYC

Don't miss this special evening of readings by top novelists Laura Joh Rowland, Peter Quinn, and R.J. Ellory at The Center for Fiction, 17 East 47th Street, in New York, at 6:30pm.

Laura Joh Rowland continues her fictional adventures of Charlotte Bronte this Spring with Bedlam. Peter Quinn, author of the acclaimed Banished Children of Eve, will read from a new novel tentatively titled The Man Who Never Returned. R.J. Ellory will offer a glimpse of The Anniversary Man, which will be published in summer 2010.

Meet the authors, editors, and friends of The Overlook Press at a reception to follow!

The Quiet Persistence of R.J. Ellory

R. J. Ellory, author of A Quiet Belief in Angels, continues his whirlwind tour of America, with stops today in Philadelphia and New York. Jason Gargano of Cincinnati CityBeat caught up with Ellory for a wide-ranging interview.

CityBeat: You have a gift for crafting unique, unpredictable narratives. Do you map out a story’s plot beforehand, or is it more of an instinctual thing?

R.J. Ellory: Very definitely an instinctual thing. Realistically, I do have a rough idea of the kind of novel I want to write before I start but I don't put an outline together, nor a synopsis. There are two things I establish in my own mind before I begin a book. The first is the emotional effect I am trying to create. The second is the location and time period of the story. The location is as important a character to me as the people in the book. Location and time period dictate language, dialect, politics, culture, so many things, especially when you are writing a book set in the States. There is such a diverse and rich contradiction and contrast of cultures here that a book set in New York and a book set in Georgia are going to be completely different stories with completely different atmospheres and feelings.

CB: As a born and bred Brit, why are you so interested in writing stories set in the United States?
RE: I think writers are often told, “Write what you know.” Though I don't think this is a bad piece of advice, I do think it's somewhat limiting. I think you should concentrate on writing what you’re interested in. The things that interest me just wouldn't work in a British setting. If you want to write complex political conspiracies, serial killer novels set in post-Depression Georgia, books about the CIA, the FBI, the assassination of the Kennedys and such things, well they just wouldn't work in those small green villages in England where you find hobbits! That's the thing for me. I'm writing about what fascinates me. As Paul Auster said when he stated that there was no choice in becoming an author — that you were essentially “chosen” — so it has been for me in what I write about. There has been no real choice in the subjects and locations I write about. It just felt right, and it just was the thing I wanted to do.

CB: What’s up with your interest in serial killers?
RE: Well, that's a direct question! I have always been fascinated by the psychology and motivation of crime. Whereas many crimes can be classified as “crimes of passion” — jealousy, revenge, anger, the heat of the moment — or “crimes of considered necessity” — the perpetrator robs a bank or holds up a store or breaks into someone's house in the misguided belief that this is the only way they can make enough money to support themselves, etcetera — serial killing is neither one of those, and is something no-one understands. Psychiatry and psychology have never given definitive answers, and possibly never will. They certainly have never provided an explanation that then led to a preventative remedy or a cure for such behavior, and thus we are left in mystery. What is it that makes a human being just want to kill other human beings? It's certainly the case in the U.K., and I'm sure the case here in the U.S., that the vast majority of murder victims are murdered by someone they know. Well, a serial killer is killing strangers. The victims look a certain way. They do a certain thing. They say certain words or have something about them that prompts a response in this killer. And that response is an act of the most terrifying brutality against this stranger. Why? That's an interesting question, and certainly a question that has come up in several of the books I have published.

CB: It was interesting to find out that you wrote nearly two-dozen novels before Candlemoth was published in 2003. What kept you from giving up?
RE: The simple belief that this was what I wanted to do more than anything. John Lennon once said that you should find something you love and then you'd never work another day in your life. Through all that writing I was also working full-time, and coming home to write never felt like another job. It felt like my escape valve, my release. Frustrating, of course, to write 22 novels and to be told by the British publishing industry that they felt insufficiently confident about publishing a British author writing American novels, and then to be told by the U.S. publishing industry that they also liked the work but felt the same as the Brits. But what can I say? Disraeli was once quoted as saying that success was entirely dependent upon constancy of purpose. I just figured that I needed to keep going, and I did, and now the past doesn't matter. It was a good experience. Twenty-two novels in six years teaches you that you can write no matter how you feel, that you can write regardless of whether or not you're “in the mood,” and it teaches you a good work ethic!

Strong Review Attention for Justin Allen's THE YEAR OF THE HORSE

Just posted on FantasyLiterature.com: "Justin Allen’s The Year of the Horse is one of the more original fantasy amalgamations I’ve come across — a mix of fantasy, historical western, and coming-of-age boys’ adventure tale peppered with some Devil and Daniel Webster / Washington Irving / Mark Twain / Zane Grey, and topped off by a heaping of multi-culturalism. . .The Year of the Horse is an enjoyable YA read that probably won’t have much cross-over adult appeal, an original and often humorous mix of historical western and fantasy with more success on the historical side than the fantasy side, with a strong central character. Recommended for YA readers with an interest in the time period and geographical setting, or for younger readers looking for a break from the usual medieval fantasy setting."

More Praise for R. J. Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS

Eleanor Bukowsky takes a look at A Quiet Belief in Angels on the popular Mostly Fiction blog: "R. J. Ellory’s A Quiet Belief in Angels is the heartrending story of Joseph Vaughn, a boy who grows up under an unlucky star. The narrator is only eleven when his thirty-seven year old father, Earl, dies in 1939, leaving him and his impoverished young mother to fend for themselves. Earl’s death leaves Joseph and his mother deeply shaken. The boy is further traumatized when a classmate is found dead, after having been stripped, beaten, and assaulted by an unknown perpetrator. This girl’s murder is just the first in a long string of calamities that will dog Augusta Falls, Georgia, where Joseph and his mother live. The specter of death constantly haunts this tragic tale of hopes dashed and innocent lives snuffed out prematurely. The author eloquently and vividly evokes the atmosphere of rural Georgia before the Second World War, where people make do with very little, gossip is a way of life, neighbors help neighbors, and outsiders are never fully accepted. There was “a richness in friendship and community” that helped compensate for a lack of material wealth. Joseph, who is highly intelligent, sensitive, and imaginative, is given a much-needed boost by his beloved teacher, Miss Webber, who encourages him to become an avid reader and try his hand at creative writing. This multi-faceted novel blends disparate elements that do not always smoothly coexist. Side by side with scenes of gothic horror are poignant romantic encounters. Humor and tragedy intermingle freely. Although Joseph benefits from a few close friendships, he also endures unspeakable betrayals. Throughout, he recalls in flashback the high and lows of his tumultuous life. Vaughn is a three-dimensional protagonist who holds this somewhat sprawling book together when it is in danger of sinking under its own weight. In an electrifying conclusion, Joseph decides that it is his responsibility to mete out punishment on behalf of the many people whose lives have been ruined by a psychopathic and manipulative villain. It is likely that Ellory tries to do too much in this murder mystery/ coming-of-age story/ exploration of family angst/ and study of small town life. Still, A Quiet Belief in Angels has a gripping quality that draws us in and keeps us on tenterhooks until it culminates in an explosive confrontation between good and evil."

Happy Birthday, P.G. WODEHOUSE!

Today is the birthday of the great P.G. Wodehouse! And what better way to celebrate than picking up a new volume in Overlook's beloved Collector's Wodehouse series. The latest releases are Barmy in Wonderland and The Man with Two Left Feet. And coming in April 2010 are The Indiscretions of Archie and Frozen Assets. Happy Birthday, Plum!

For the true, die-hard Wodehouse fans, today might be a good day to pick up Plum Sauce: A P.G. Wodehouse Companion, byRichard Usborne. In this marvelously entertaining guide, Usborne brings order to the vast an tangled fictional world that Wodehouse stitched together in a writing career that stretched over 70 years and nearly 100 books.

Kris Saknussemm's PRIVATE MIDNIGHT Reviewed by James Sallis in Fantasy & Science Fiction

Novelist James Sallis reviews Private Midnight, by Kris Saknussemm, in the December issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction: "Saknussemm’s second novel, following upon the 500-page picaresque, post-apocalyptic satire Zanesville characterized by its author as “techno-theological post-American monster vaudeville. . . . Some readers will, I’m certain, find components out of kilter, horror elements overshadowing the embedded crime novel, Ritter’s interiority arrant; and some will object, on moral or aesthetic grounds, to such full-blown, graphic eroticism. But for me the balance of elements is wonderfully maintained. The detective work runs like a river through the whole, counterposing the weightiness of the fantastic; the biographical elements never go on too long, and fall in seamlessly; the teeter-totter of what is imagined or projected, what real, never falters. Private Midnight is, finally, a brilliant and brilliantly disorienting novel. Those sounds you hear beneath the floorboard? As with The Manual of Detection, they’re the sounds of a writer respecting and rooting deeply into the conventions— finding out what’s in there.I n interview, Kris Saknussemm has said: “I would always support the wild, deviant, and visionary work over the quiet, accomplished, and methodical.” And further along,

that “the greatest hope for American fiction that I see lies in the direction of ‘speculative’ fiction…mutant, hybrid forms.”What Greil Marcus termed that“old, weird America” is still with us, scouts. And it is perhaps never more with us than in fresh new work like Saknussemm’s."

Join Overlook Press Authors R.J. Ellory, Peter Quinn, and Laura Joh Rowland in NYC on October 20

Tuesday, October 20, 7pm, at The Center for Fiction, 17 East 47th Street, New York. For more information, 212-755-6710 / www.centerforfiction.org.

A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS Selected an "OKRA PICK" by Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance

Every year the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance chooses a basketful of books for the Fall 2009 Okra Picks. Thirteen books made the final list, and include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s and young adult titles. All the books have the following things in common: 1) They are Southern in nature. 2) They are Fall 2009 releases and 3) There is a SIBA member Bookstore who is really excited about this book. Southern booksellers love their Southern authors!

Topping the Fiction list this time is R.J. Ellory's thrilling A Quiet Belief in Angels! Ellory appeared at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville over the weekend, and will continue his tour of the South with appearances at Borders in Atlanta tonight and Books and Books in Coral Gables, Florida on Tuesday night.

Dr. Irene Levine's BEST FRIENDS FOREVER Chosen One of AARP's "Best Books for Grownups" for October

AARP The Magazine has chosen Dr. Irene S. Levine's Best Friends Forever as one of the top ten "Books for Grownups" for their October 2009 issue: "Though popular culture pays lip service to the power of women's friendships, rarely does it acknowledge the great pain felt when such a bond is broken. Psychologist Levine surveys the grieving process that women experience when a close alliance collapses. She also counsels us how to revive a troubled friendship—and how to know when it's time to let it go."

Meet R.J. Ellory, author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, On the Road

R.J. Ellory, author of the riveting A Quiet Belief in Angels, is on tour in America for the next couple of weeks. Don't miss this rare opportunity to meet one the the world's top thriller writers!

Based in Birmingham, England, R.J. Ellory is the author of seven novels - all of which are based in America. Joining The Overlook Press this year with his first U.S. published work A Quiet Belief in Angels, Ellory has enjoyed tremendous success in the U.K. and France, and his novels have been translated in to more than 2o languages. Overlook will publish The Anniversary Man in the summer of 2010.

Sunday, October 11, 12noon
SOUTHERN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
War Memorial Plaza
Charlotte Ave. and Sixth Ave North
Nashville, Tennessee

Monday, October 12, 7pm
BORDERS
3637 Peachtree Road NE, Suite C
Atlanta, Georgia

Tuesday, October 13, 8pm
BOOKS AND BOOKS
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, Florida 33134

Wednesday, October 14, 7pm
The Book Stall at Chestnut Court
811 Elm Street.
Winnetka Illinois 60093

Thurs/Fri, October 15-16
BOUCHERCON 2009
Hyatt Regency Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana

Saturday, October 17
BOOKS BY THE BANKS
Cincinnati USA Book Festival
Duke Energy Convention Center
Cincinnati, OH

Monday, October 19
12noon-1pm
BORDERS
Philadelphia, PA

7pm
BARNES & NOBLE Tribeca
97 Warren Street (at Greenwich)
New York, NY

Tuesday, October 20
MERCANTILE LIBRARY CENTER FOR FICTION, 7pm
15 E. 43rd Street
New York, NY

Amy S. Foster, author of WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES, at Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 10

Amy S. Foster, author of When Autumn Leaves, will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on Saturday, October 10. Amy will discuss her new novel on a panel - "Pilgrims, Saints, and Mystics" - with authors River Jordan and Karen McElmurray on Saturday, oct. 10 from 1:30-3 p.m. with book signing to follow. Already being heralded as one the best debut novels this season, When Autumn Leaves is a magical book that reading groups and book clubs across the country will enjoy.

Just Released: Harry Sidebottom's FIRE IN THE EAST

Just released this week is the first book in a new series published by Overlook, Harry Sidebottom's Fire in the East, a first gripping installment in an immense grand narrative—the Warrior of Rome series. In this “well-constructed, well-paced and gripping account” (Times Literary Supplement), Harry Sidebottom combines stunning historical detail with resounding contemporary relevance as he explores the enduring question of how far the West will go to defend its liberties before it destroys the very thing it is trying to protect. . . .The spectacular flair for explosive action, depth of literary and geographic background, as well as the psychological complexity of the characters makes Fire in the East the most authoritative historical adventure novel this year.

Maureen Freely's ENLIGHTENMENT Featured in Gently Read Literature Blog

Elaine Fowler Palencia explores "The Dirty Underbelly of one of the World's Great Cities" in this review of Maureen Freely's brilliant novel Enlightenment, now in paperback: "Like a radioactive matryoshka doll, Maureen Freely’s latest novel rises out of the Cold War history of Turkey, glowing with lethal secrets nested one inside another. To read it is to open the largest doll, then the smaller doll hidden inside it, and so on, in a search for the shape of truth.

The combination of narrative voices manifests this layered quality. A professor at the University of Warwick, Freely has published articles on Turkish politics and is the English translator of Pahmuk, who was indicted for the crime of “insulting Turkishness;” i.e., daring to mention to a reporter the “secret” of the Armenian genocide. Like M, Freely grew up in Istanbul and attended Robert College (as did Pahmuk), where her father taught. The author of several novels and nonfiction books, she writes clear, visual prose that bathes the reader in the sights and feel of Istanbul. Her well-known wit flashes amid the dark mysteries of international politics-as-usual as, with a pen dipped in irony and long-simmering indignation, she probes the dirty underbelly of one of the world’s great cities, suspended as it is between east and west, like the “Pasha’s library,” William Wakefield’s CIA lookout post above the Bosphorus. This novel will appeal to fans of thrillers and mysteries, the general literary reader, and those particularly interested in Turkish politics. A surprise but satisfying ending awaits you."

Overlook Preview: RETURN TO THE LITTLE KINGDOM

Michael Moritz's compelling story of Steve Jobs, the creation of Apple, and how the company changed the world is revealed in Return to the Little Kingdom, published next month by Overlook.

In 1984, The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer told the story of Apple s first decade alongside the histories of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Now, completely revised and expanded, Return to the Little Kingdom is the definitive biography of Apple and its founders from the very beginning.Moritz brings readers inside the childhood homes of Jobs and Wozniak and records how they dropped out of college and founded Apple in 1976. He follows the fortunes of the company through the mid-1980s, and in new material, tracks the development of Apple to the present and offers an insider s profile of Jobs, whose genius made Apple the powerhouse it is today.

John Freely's THE GRAND TURK Reviewed in Booklist

Booklist offers a critique of The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II—Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire, by John Freely: "The fall of the “impregnable city” of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 ended the enfeebled Byzantine Empire; it also confirmed the emergence of a new, vibrant, and aggressive power that would control the southern and eastern rims of the Mediterranean. The Turkish assault on the city was led by Mehmet II, who was only 21. Freely, who has written numerous books on Turkish history, offers a well researched survey of Mehmet’s life and times. The author does an admirable job of separating myth from reality. Long despised by European Christians as a bloodthirsty tyrant, Mehmet is shown as a far more complicated figure. Given the serpentine nature of Ottoman dynastic politics, he was capable of ruthlessness and fratricidal violence. Yet, he was no thug. He could conduct diplomacy with subtle effectiveness and use it to avoid war when possible. Still, like Ottoman rulers before and after, his ultimate goal remained territorial expansion. A useful, informative survey that provides a balanced view of a seminal epoch in world history." — Jay Freeman

Dilip Hiro's INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA Reviewed in The Economist

Dilip Hiro's Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Iran is reviewed in the current issue of The Economist: "The Central Asian “stans”, as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are known by the Western diplomats and oilmen who frequent them, conjure images of megalomaniac rulers, exotic nomads and mineral riches beyond compare. There is some truth in the caricature, as Dilip Hiro makes clear in this new study (which also includes sections on Turkey and Iran), but it is not the whole truth. In addition there is the overwhelming influence of foreign ideologies—Islamism, socialism and, most recently, capitalism—and their promoters. The heirs to Genghis Khan they may be, but ever since the decline of the silk route in the 16th century, the five nations that lie in a vast swathe between China and the Caspian have been at the receiving end of foreign trouble. And it is Russia’s shadow that has fallen longest, and most balefully.

Central Asia was subjugated over the 18th and 19th centuries: it furnished tsarist Lebensraum, cotton and a buffer against the British. After the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin urged the “Muslim toilers” of the east to “organise your national life freely and without hindrance.” But things turned out differently. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, and the five republics, themselves Soviet inventions, achieved independence, they had been shaped by Communist planning and Russian assaults on their local cultures (mostly a hybrid of Islam and steppe shamanism).
When former Communists took control of the newly independent republics, they found themselves grappling with existential crises. One Uzbek teacher told Mr Hiro that her colleagues had grown up “citing Lenin every five minutes. Now they have lost the very centre of their thinking. They don’t know how to fill that big hole.”

The story of this endeavour is the subject of Mr. Hiro’s book. The favoured political model, authoritarian state capitalism, has not worked and the efforts of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to exploit hydrocarbons have been slowed by corruption. Islam Karimov, the veteran leader of Uzbekistan, the most populous of the five, has kept his country secular and relatively stable at the cost of shocking human-rights violations. The attacks on America in September 2001 were timely for the region’s strongmen. Uzbekistan provided airbases and help in extraordinary renditions, in return for which America turned a blind eye to atrocities and increased its military and economic aid. This, too, was the pattern in other republics which also have land borders with Afghanistan. Since then, however, some of the stans have been wooed back into Russia’s embrace.

For a region that came to nationalism relatively late—until recently, millions of Central Asians defined themselves primarily as Muslims—ethnic conflict has been widespread. One reason is the proliferation of manufactured nationalisms. From Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rakhmonov, with his celebration of Tajikistan’s Aryan, pre-Islamic past, to Uzbekistan’s adoption of Tamerlane as the nation’s founder (even though he was not an Uzbek), these efforts have proved divisive. In the case of Turkmenistan, the search became a consuming malaise. In 2000 its late president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who liked to call himself “Father of the Turkmens”, changed the names of the months, calling April after his mother. He also replaced cinemas with puppet theatres, which apparently are more authentically Turkmen. Niyazov attached such importance to his own epic account of the Turkmen nation that questions on the text appeared in the national driving test. Readers acquainted with Mr. Hiro’s prolific writing about Asia and the Islamic world will be unsurprised to learn that “Inside Central Asia” is a conscientious guide to the region, full of dependable history-telling and analysis."

David Crystal, author of WALKING ENGLISH, on NPR's Talk of the Nation

Linguist and author David Crystal was recently interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation, discussing the paperback release of Walking English: A Journey in Search of Language: "Whether near his home in Wales or abroad, linguist David Crystal always travels with an insatiable curiosity about the English language. For his book, Walking English, he hit the road in search of new linguistic experiences. Crystal is fascinated by distinctive accents and towns with unusual names. He takes particular interest in intriguing turns of phrase old and new, whether they're rooted deep in Anglo-Saxon origins or fresh off a TV ad."

Visit NPR.org to read an excerpt from Walking English and listen to the interview.