Silk Mirage

Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan

Joanna Lillis

$40

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury
01 December 2025

History; Political ideologies; Political leaders & leadership; Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship; Political control & freedoms

Silk Mirage is a compelling portrait of Uzbekistan, a country at the heart of the ancient Silk Road and now the centre of a power struggle between reformers and reactionaries for the soul of this strategic land in Central Asia.

In 2016, the long-ruling dictator Islam Karimov – one of the last Soviet-era strongmen – died, sparking a period of transformation under his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, which became known as the ‘Uzbek Spring’. But, as investigative journalist Joanna Lillis shows, spring has struggled to break through in one of the world’s most repressive and totalitarian states. As one of the few western journalists with access to Uzbekistan and with over two decades of experience covering the country, Lillis travels deep into the heart of the Karimov regime, portraying all the excesses and atrocities that made it such a brutal dictatorship. She also penetrates the system that replaced it, exploring how life has changed for Uzbeks under Mirziyoyev’s rule – and how it has not. A tale of both reform and repression, this book illustrates the challenges of dragging a country out of dictatorship.

Lillis explores Uzbekistan’s politics, economics, history, arts and culture – and asks where the country stands nearly a decade after the death of its dictator, and 600 years since its ancient capital Samarkand was the centre of the world’s trade network. Lillis weaves in the extraordinary stories of ordinary people: from politicians to former political prisoners, from journalists to human rights crusaders, from entrepreneurs to environmentalists, from artists to architects, from silk makers to carpet weavers.

Conjuring up Uzbekistan as a place full of life and loss, Silk Mirage tells the stories of courageous people who probe to find the cracks in an authoritarian regime through which the light gets in.

By: Joanna Lillis
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 220mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 38mm
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9781350292468
ISBN 10: 135029246X
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Joanna Lillis is a Kazakhstan-based journalist and author writing about Central Asia who has lived and worked in the region since 2001, in Uzbekistan (2001-2005) and Kazakhstan (since 2005). Her reporting has featured in outlets including The Economist, the Guardian, the Independent, the Eurasianet website and Foreign Policy and POLITICO magazines. Prior to moving to Central Asia, she lived in Russia and worked for BBC Monitoring, the BBC World Service’s global media tracking service. While completing a BA in Modern Languages at the University of Leeds, she studied Russian in the Soviet republics of Belorussia and Ukraine before the collapse of the USSR, and she has an MA in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Bradford. She is the author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan (2019).