Rebel Land

Series such as Michael Palin's New Europe have raised awareness of Europe's forgotten nations Based on the people of Turkey, this book will appeal to fans of William Dalrymple's travel writing such as City of Djinns and Mark Mazower's Salonica: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950, as well as Jan Morris and Colin Thubron Christopher de Bellaigue's previous book, In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs, was shortlisted for the 2004 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize

What is the meaning of love and death in a remote, forgotten, impossibly conflicted part of the world? This book features the author's journeys to Turkey's inhospitable eastern provinces to find out.What is the meaning of love and death in a remote, forgotten, impossibly conflicted part of the world? In "Rebel Land" the acclaimed author and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue journeys to Turkey's inhospitable eastern provinces to find out. Immersing himself in the achingly beautiful district of Varto, a place left behind in Turkey's march to modernity, medieval in its attachment to race and religious sect, he explores the violent history of conflict between Turks, Kurds and Armenians, and the maelstrom, of emotion and memories, that defines its inhabitants even today. The result is a compellingly personal account of one man's search into the past, as de Bellaigue, mistrusted by all he meets, and particularly by the secret agents of the State, applies his investigative flair and fluent Turkish to unlock jealously-guarded taboos and hold humanity's excesses up to the light of a very modern sensibility.