THE CARPET WARS: From Kabul to Baghdad: A Ten-Year Journey Along Ancient Trade Routes

An Australian journalist who's covered the Middle East and Central Asia for 10 years, Kremmer travels through Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and other countries, following the paths of the carpet trade, the region's largest export industry after oil. The carpet is both his entry point into these largely Islamic worlds and a symbol of the rich tapestry of cultures that he discovers, but Kremmer isn't bound by this narrow focus: he talks not only to rug merchants and others involved in the trade, but to students, politicians, cab drivers and heads of secret police. Obviously enamored of the region and its peoples, Kremmer lovingly describes the rituals and texture of their lives, from tea ceremonies to the clamorous bazaars. At the same time, Kremmer weaves in a great deal of history, both of the 500-year-old carpet trade and of the political upheavals in the area since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Whether in Baghdad or Peshawar, he shows how strife—in the form of the Gulf War's aftermath and the tyrannical rule of the Taliban—affects the economic fortunes of his subjects. Though somewhat sprawling, this work is a standout for its lucid historical overviews and, more importantly, the dramatic, intimate depictions of daily life. (May)