Apples are from Kazakhstan, My Amazon Review

Apples are From Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared
by Christopher Robbins

I picked this one up as I had earlier read Colin Thubron's 'The Lost Heart of Asia', which chronicles a journey in the early 1990s across the newly-independent former Soviet Central Asian states. At that time, they were heading towards an ambiguous future. 'Apples are from Kazakhstan', written about 15 years later, is about one of those Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan. Gone are the uncertainties of an unknown future. The Kazakhstan depicted here is confident of itself, and heading towards a path of prosperity and regional influence. With neighbors like Russia on the north and China on the east, and with ample natural resources and a leftover nuclear stockpile from the Soviet days, Kazakhstan today stands in a region of extreme geopolitical significance.

If you look on a map, you will notice that Kazakhstan is a huge landmass. But we know little about it. We may, perhaps, vaguely recollect having watched documentaries of Kazakh nomads who tame falcons and drink mare's milk. If you're a hardcore Beatles fan, you may even have heard of the the Kazakhstan Beatles, who do impeccable renditions of Lennon and McCartney, with nasal Liverpool twang and the entire song book.

This book describes all that. While the old Kazakhstan of nomads and descendants of Genghis Khan still persists, the nation today is a hotbed of entrepreneurship. A Mercedes Benz is a common sight, and young, Western educated Kazakhs are just the same as young Western educated people anywhere in the world.

There are some dark moments. The author manages to dig up memories of Soviet gulags, prison camps of unfathomable inhumanity. Kazakhstan was also the nuclear testing ground for the Soviets, which led to radioactive poisoning of entire villages. Leon Trotsky and Alexander Solzhenitsyin were some illustrious Russians who spent their days in exile in Kazakhstan. The Aral Sea was plundered beyond repair.

In the end, as the author portrays, Kazakhs have been able to reconcile their dark past. They hope for a bright future, which may be within sight.

The title comes from the fact that apples may first have been grown in Kazakhstan, from where they spread to the entire world, and even today, some regions in Kazakhstan produce the giantest, and tastiest, apples.