Taxi to Tashkent

About the Book

Alexander the Great invaded Uzbekistan in 329bc. The country was overrun by Attila the Hun in the 5th century. In the 13th century Genghis Khan's armies destroyed its cities. Stalin claimed the country for the Soviet Union in 1924. In 1991 the Peace Corps arrived. Tom Fleming went to Uzbekistan as a forty year old Peace Corps volunteer. He was a fish out of water, an infidel in a Muslim land, teaching AIDS prevention and sex education in one of the most conservative regions of Central Asia. With humor and poignancy, 'Taxi to Tashkent' portrays a land little known in the West. Instead of a nation rife with Islamic extremists as portrayed in the Western media, Fleming discovers a land of Korean discos, where blue eyed Muslims listen to Shania Twain, and where shop owners break into applause at the mention of America. Fleming travels throughout Uzbekistan, from the ecological disaster site of the Aral Sea, to the ancient Silk Route cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. 'Taxi to Tashkent' describes a little-known corner of the world where nothing appears as it seems.

About the Author

Tom Fleming grew up in Salinas, California, and attended California State University, Fresno, where he received a BA degree in journalism. Fleming has lived in Los Angeles, London, St. Petersburg, Russia, and currently resides in Austin, Texas. Taxi to Tashkent is his first book.