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Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003

"Brilliant."
—Time

"Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter."
—The New York Review of Books

"Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all sides been better described-or, indeed, better explained . . . Offers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before."
—Foreign Affairs

"This book is a major milestone in the Western scholarship on Karabakh."
—Armenian Freedom Network

"This book is helpful because in order to craft a final resolution to the conflict, one must understand what events transpired in the first place. De Waal's book significantly contributes to this purpose and establishes itself as one of the standard works for understanding this conflict."
—Parameters

"Some of the most illuminating - and alarming - reading in de Waal's book includes the battle of historians and writers on both sides. They fire polemical missiles at each other through bscure history and literary journals, denigrating and, in some cases, obliterating the history and identity of the other side."
—Eurasianet

"Only rarely does a university press publish such a gripping, poignant book as this. . . . This is an impressive work of careful scholarship and vivid writing."
—Choice

"De Waal is cautious, meticulous and even-handed, and the breadth of his research is remarkable. He shows real affection for the ordinary people on both sides, and restraint in dealing with the self-serving politicians and field commanders in both Armenia and Azerbaijan who used Karabakh for their own political and pesonal ends."
—Time (Europe)

“Thomas De Waal gets as close as possible to the heart of the problem, and provides us with one of the most serious, to this date, description of this tragedy. . . .A well documented and precise account.”
— Central Eurasian Reader

Black Garden is the definitive study of how Armenia and Azerbaijan, two southern Soviet republics, got sucked into a conflict that helped bring them to independence, bringing to an end the Soviet Union, and plaguing a region of great strategic importance. It cuts between a careful reconstruction of the history of Nagorny Karabakh conflict since 1988 and on-the-spot reporting on its convoluted aftermath.

Part contemporary history, part travel book, part political analysis, the book is based on six months traveling through the south Caucasus, more than 120 original interviews in the region, Moscow, and Washington, and unique primary sources, such as Politburo archives.

The historical chapters trace how the conflict lay unresolved in the Soviet era; how Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders exacerbated it; how the Politiburo failed to cope with the crisis; how the war began and ended; how the international community failed to sort out the conflict.

What emerges is a complex and subtle portrait of a beautiful and fascinating region, blighted by historical prejudice and conflict.

Thomas de Waal is a writer specializing in Russia and the Caucasus. He has reported for, amongst others, the BBC World Service, the Moscow Times, and the Times of London and is co-author of Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus (NYU Press). He is currently Caucasus Editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London.