KEY POINTS:
Did you know that apples originated in Kazakhstan? This truth struck Christopher Robbins with the force of an epiphany. Indeed, the wild variety still flourishes in the Central Asian republic.
Stalking the wild apple seemed as good a reason as any for Robbins to make his way to Kazakhstan, though it was a disappointment for him to discover that the best cultivated variety, the aport, has almost vanished. Beloved of the local bears, the giant "aport could grow as large as a baby's head and it was famous for its flavour and scent throughout the Soviet Union".
Kazakhstan was part of that country until 1991, housing the Soviet space programme as well as much of its nuclear arsenal. It was also where those weapons were tested, at the expense of its citizens' health; it was the site of the gulag in which Solzhenitsyn and thousands of others were imprisoned.
Before independence, the place was run by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. In the then capital, Almaty, in the late Nineties, I heard no one say a good word about him, principally because his three daughters were married to the sons of too many government ministers for it to be entirely coincidental.
In December 1997, Nazarbayev moved the country's capital to Astana, near the more congenial border with Russia. This means that Kazakhstan now has one of the coldest, least comfortable capitals.
But by 2030, the new diplomatic quarter and government buildings should be complete and very soon, Norman Foster's Khan Shatyry should be finished. This is the President's "giant yurt the size of a city to provide winter fun for everyone". There will be terraced gardens, a river flanked by palms and beaches of sand washed by an artificial sea.
Nonetheless, Robbins, seems to find Nazarbayev not only sane but admirable, possibly because early on in the book, he is introduced to him and the President thereafter takes him around as part of his entourage.
It must be noted that the spectre of corruption and the terrible burden of history, Nazarbayev has presided over the dismantling of his own independent nuclear deterrent, has declared himself an enlightened atheist proud of his Muslim heritage and is tough on Islamist baddies.
Maybe Robbins is right to like him. In any case, they're both terrific company and though this fact-filled book cries out for an index it is a superlative addition to the literature of travel.
-OBSERVER
