Dark Shadows Flies Off the Shelves

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 the establishment of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test facility, the operations of which condemned the surrounding population to radiation poisoning”, and “provides a vivid, interview-led report of Kazakhstan’s stunted human rights record”.

Check out also the author’s wide-ranging interview on Dark Shadows and where Kazakhstan is heading after Nazarbayev’s resignation with the excellent Geopolitics and Empire podcast.

You can find Dark Shadows in all good bookshops in the UK and US, or order online from Bloomsbury or Amazon’s UK and US websites, including in Kindle format (or e-book pdf format on the publisher’s site).

Now is a great time to read this compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, with its deep dive into contemporary politics, history, culture and identity told through the voices of ordinary people.

Following the resignation of strongman leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose 30 years at the helm of Kazakhstan is recounted in Dark Shadows, the country is in the grip of its first political transition in more than a generation and is heading for a presidential election in June – so the book provides essential background reading on how Kazakhstan got where it is today and where it’s going.

As Dark Shadows enters its second print run, we thank readers past, present and future for their interest!

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