Dark Shadows

As Kazakhstan gears up to go to the polls for a  presidential election  following the  resignation  of long-serving strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country is heading into its most interesting and turbulent election in well over a decade. A polling station in Almaty, complete with balloons to create a festive atmosphere. For anyone interested in taking a deep dive into Kazakh political life ahead of the vote on June 9 th ,  Dark Shadows  is a great place to start.  Published  in October by Bloomsbury-owned I.B. Tauris, the book has proven so popular that the first edition has sold out and it’s just gone into a  second print run . Author Joanna Lillis has been covering presidential elections in Kazakhstan since  2005 , through first-hand, on-the-ground reporting that allows the opinions of Kazakhstan’s people about their political leaders shine through.  She traces the trajectory of Nazarbayev first breaking the 90%...

Since its publication in October, Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan has been snapped up by readers so eagerly that it is nearly sold out – so hurry up if you have yet to get your hands on a copy of the first edition! A second print run from Bloomsbury owned publishing house I.B. Tauris is in the works and will be out very soon. Here you can see a  sneak preview  of the cover of the second edition with an endorsement from a  Spectator review  by  Peter Frankopan , historian and best-selling author of  The Silk Roads  and  The New Silk Roads , who describes Dark Shadows as “astute, refreshing and revelatory”. Dark Shadows has also been given a rave review in the  Times Literary Supplement  recently (subscribers only), and a write-up in  Literary Review , which found that author Joanna Lillis “refreshes our knowledge of important events in Kazakhstan’s history, such as the evaporation of the Aral Sea and th...