Akmaral

As anyone who has read my novels knows, I am fascinated by nomadic life on the Eurasian steppe, especially the role of women in that society. So I am always on the alert for fiction—and even nonfiction, as my next pick will show—set in the grasslands that run from China to the Black Sea. Vast but scarcely populated, subject to extremes of climate, inhospitable to agriculture but perfect for maintaining large herds of grazing animals, the steppes gave rise to a warrior culture based on archery and horses that maintained itself almost unchanged into the 19th century, when modern weaponry… show more.

This was such a fascinating read for me. It’s an epic tale told over the lifetime of a woman warrior named Akmaral that interweaves fact and folklore into a mesmerizing story about matriarchal power, the ferocity of love and hate, and the alternating currents of battle and peace.

I was so absorbed in the beautiful language of this book that I couldn’t put it down. The novel recreates the expansive, unforgiving world of 5th-century Central Asia, a setting firmly rooted in the natural and spiritual worlds and the struggle to survive.

While being dazzled by the writing, I felt like… show more.