At its peak, the Ottoman empire stretched from Hungary to the Gulf of Aden to the Caspian Sea. Informed by a lifetime of travel and exploration, Eastward to Tartary takes you on a spellbinding journey into the heart of that still-unsettled region, a journey over land and through history.

Seven years ago, Robert Kaplan published a book on an obscure corner of Eastern Europe that many Americans had never heard of. That book, Balkan Ghosts, became a classic of travel writing, a landmark work whose eloquence is matched by its influence. Eastward to Tartary is in part a sequel. Kaplan takes us through Turkey, across the Fertile Crescent, and into the volatile, oil-rich lands of the Caucasus and Central Asia, a region he describes as the Balkans of the future--explosive, strategically important, the new fault line between East and West.

Through dramatic stories of unforgettable characters past and present, Kaplan illuminates the tragic history of the lands in which he travels. He ventures from the famed archaeological ruins of Syria to the markets of Lebanon to the military outposts of Turkey and Israel; from Baku, capital of new business and new oil, across the Caspian Sea to the deserts of Turkmenistan and back to the killing fields of Armenia.

Eastward to Tartary is Kaplan's first book since Balkan Ghosts to focus on a single region--one that is as mystifying as it is mysterious. This enthralling book will introduce Americans to countries as unfamiliar to them now as the Balkans once were, as dangerous, and as important.