The "reality novel" A Poet and Bin-Laden set in Central Asia at the
turn of the 21st century against a swirling backdrop of Islamic
fundamentalism in the Ferghana Valley and beyond, gives a
first-hand account on the militants and Taliban's internal life.
The novel begins on the eve of 9/11, with the narrator's haunting
description of the airplane attack on the Twin Towers as seen on TV
while he is on holiday in Central Asia; and tells the story of an
Uzbek poet Belgi, who was disappointed in the authoritarian regime
in Uzbekistan and became a terrorist in the eyes of the world. His
journey begins with a search for a Sufi spiritual master and ends
in guerrilla warfare, and it is this tension between a
transcendental and a violent response to oppression, between the
book and the bomb, between Archipelago GULAG and modern Central
Asia and Afghanistan, that gives the novel its specific poignancy.
In this book Hamid Ismailov masterfully intertwines fiction with
documentary and provides wonderfully vivid accounts of historical
events such as the siege of Kunduz, the breakout from Shebergan
prison and the insurgency in the Ferghana Valley as witnessed by
the Byronian figure of Belgi, who enters the inner sanctum of
al-Qaeda, and ultimately meets Sheikh bin Laden himself.
General
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