Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Polly Lee
Audiobook
15 hr 3 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

Dark Shadows is a compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, a country that is little known in the West. Strategically located in the heart of Central Asia, sandwiched between Vladimir Putin's Russia, its former colonial ruler, and Xi Jinping's China, this vast oil-rich state is carving out its place in the world as it contends with its own complex past and present. Journalist Joanna Lillis paints a vibrant picture of this emerging nation through vivid reportage based on seventeen years of on-the-ground coverage, and travels across the length and breadth of this enigmatic country that lies along the ancient Silk Road and at the geopolitical and cultural crossroads where East meets West. Featuring tales of murder and abduction, intrigue and betrayal, extortion and corruption, this book explores how a president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, transformed himself into a potentate and the economically struggling state he inherited at the fall of the USSR into a swaggering twenty-first century monocracy. This new edition features two additional chapters covering the aftermath of Nazarbayev's fall from power in 2019; the Chinese government's repressions against the Kazakhs of Xinjiang as part of its crackdown on Muslim minorities; and an afterword reflecting on the tumultuous events of January 2022 in Almaty.

About the author

Joanna Lillis is a Kazakhstan-based journalist reporting on Central Asia, whose work has featured in the Guardian, The Economist and the Independent newspaper.

Polly Lee is an award-winning actress best known for her roles on The Americans (FX) and Younger (Showtime). On stage, she has worked in NYC and across the country for almost twenty years. Lee has narrated over fifty nonfiction and young adult fiction books and has received many AudioFile Earphones Awards for her work.

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