Out of Steppe

Enterprising and finely written ... Metcalfe can justly be compared with British adventurers such as Robert Byron

Economist

Daniel Metcalfe journeys through the five 'stans, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, and brings to life the human tapestry they comprise

Sunday Tribune

This book's idea is timely: a quest for six ethnic communities that, after surviving the depredations of Sovietism, are now, as Central Asia modernises, disappearing ... [Metcalfe's] book has many virtues, the greatest of which are courage and a keen eye for detail, plus an ability to convey the essence of a place through the briefest of anecdotes

Independent

This is a book of great warmth and immense scholarship, in the best tradition of travel writing. It opens up a region about which most of us are vague. It is fascinating reading

Irish Times

This is an important book: a first-hand account from an adventurous traveller who has dared to explore the fulcrum of Asian geopolitics. Read this and you will understand why we need to care about Central Asia. Metcalfe has reminded us of why travel-writing matters

Nicholas Crane, author of Clear Waters Rising

Fresh, witty and full of quirky detail ... the book is also a serious, sometimes moving account of environmental degradation, political repression and social isolation

Financial Times

Full of telling anecdotes and snappy metaphors, Out of Steppe is a humane portrait of a region with a complex past and an uncertain future

Daily Mail

Metcalfe writes with sensitivity and great flair ... I was totally absorbed

Paddy Ashdown