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  • Published: 15 November 2004
  • ISBN: 9780375727542
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $40.00

Chasing the Sea

Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia



From a brilliant young writer, a hilarious, moving, and deeply informed account of an adventure through Uzbekistan to the disappearing Aral Sea. First time in paperback. Vintage Departures.

In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a na•ve Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet irrigation policies. Joining up with an exuberant translator named Rustam, Bissell slips more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police as he makes his often wild way to the devastated sea.

In Chasing the Sea, Bissell combines the story of his travels with a beguiling chronicle of Uzbekistan’s striking culture and long history of violent subjugation by despots from Jenghiz Khan to Joseph Stalin. Alternately amusing and sobering, this is a gripping portrait of a fascinating place, and the debut of a singularly gifted young writer.

  • Published: 15 November 2004
  • ISBN: 9780375727542
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $40.00

About the author

Tom Bissell

Tom Bissell was born in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1974. He worked for several years as a book editor. His criticism, fiction, and journalism have appeared in Harper’s, Men’s Journal, Esquire, McSweeney’s, The Boston Review, and Best American Travel Writing 2003, among other publications. He has been nominated for several awards and not received any of them. He lives in New York City.