All this is a salutary reminder of the fact that 70 years ago the Muslim world represented the very pinnacle of mystery and romantic seductiveness for Hollywood and the Western world generally. How things have changed.
There is much of geographical interest, too. We read of the region's famous "wandering lake," more correctly described as a wandering river. This was a famous early 20th century marvel. The Tarim river changed its course in 1921, having done a similar thing back in 330, taking its lake with it.
Today the lake has dried up altogether, leaving merely a glimmering saltpan in the desert of Lop, the eastern end of the Taklamakan described by the Edwardian archeologist Aurel Stein as "bearing everywhere the impress of death."
Xinjiang has had many different names throughout its history, a fact which itself points to the area's complex ethnic mix. Most of the names refer to the non-Chinese origins of much of the region's culture, and one such phrase, "East Turkestan", is currently banned in China.
Christian Tyler is a former writer on London's Financial Times. He was in the area in 1995, and even learnt some Uighur before going. His journalist's habit of seeing quickly into the essential configuration of many different aspects of life has clearly been good training for the writing of this book.
This is not in any sense a classic of history, geographical description, travel writing or political analysis. Instead, it contains elements of all four. It depends extensively on written sources, and the most has been made of what was probably limited travel in the region.
Finally, there is plenty of material on the current oppression of the Uighurs by Beijing. But it makes for very sad reading. If you really want to know the details of, for example, the many prison camps in the area, or the heroic investigative efforts of Harry Wu, graduate of the gulags and secret returnee to China in order to expose the true extent of its penal system, then you'd better read this informative and notably accessible book for yourself.
This, then, is an enjoyable and very readable general account. The author has put together a book that will save anyone interested in Xinjiang -- someone planning a trip along the Chinese section of the Silk Road, for instance -- from the labor of having to read a whole library of others.
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