cover image CAUCASUS: In the Wake of Warriors

CAUCASUS: In the Wake of Warriors

Nicholas Griffin, . . St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-312-30853-7

Novelist Griffin (The Requiem Shark) wonderfully weaves historical facts and compelling characters in this adventure through the Caucasus region, the rugged land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. As the current home to the republics of Georgia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan and Dagestan, the Caucasus region is politically tense and historically convoluted, but Griffin deftly explains the past and present state of the region through two parallel narratives. First, Griffin describes his travels though modern Caucasus with a small film crew as they investigate the legend of Imam Shamil, a Chechen leader who successfully fought Russian invaders during the 19th century and whose exploits continue to inspire Chechen fighters today. Griffin then recounts the many stories and myths regarding Shamil, "a figure revered throughout the region, yet virtually unknown to the West," but who was "a front-page regular of the London Times" as he fought against the Russians for almost 20 years. Through powerful descriptions of the fierce combat between Shamil and the Russians, which pitted a guerrilla forces of an indigenous people against the massed troops of an empire, Griffin shows the many ways in which "the echoes of Chechnya between the mid-19th and turn of the 21st century are remarkable." This short work is an excellent and richly detailed look at an important but relatively little-known geopolitical region. (Mar.)