Caroline Eden reimagines traditional travel writing using food as the jumping-off point to explore Central Asia
Please join us in a quest to better understand the vast heartland of Asia, through a talk by Caroline Eden on her book Red Sands which navigates a course from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the sun-ripened orchards of the Fergana Valley.
Following a decade of writing about Uzbekistan and its neighbouring countries (the ‘stans), during the spring and autumn of 2019 Caroline Eden spent six months on the ground developing stories and chasing leads. Her primary aim for Red Sands is to reveal a different portrait of Central Asia, using food as an agent, device and theme, while also preserving on paper something of these countries as they rapidly develop and open up to the world. The Financial Times selected Red Sands as a ‘book of the year’ for 2020.
Beginning on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in oil-rich Kazakhstan, we head into the kitchens of underground desert mosques, through the world’s largest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan, to remote orchards in Tajikistan, into cafés and canteens in Uzbekistan’s leafy capital and to dining rooms in Soviet-era sanatoriums, all the while exploring how food mirrors and shapes landscapes, history and culture.
Lit up by emblematic recipes, Red Sands is filled with human stories, forgotten histories and tales of adventure, while bringing in universal themes that relate to us all: hope, hunger, longing, love and the joys of eating well on the road.
Caroline will be in conversation with Viv Groskop.
Praise for Red Sands
‘Caroline Eden is an extraordinarily creative and gifted writer. Red Sands captures the sights, tastes and feel of Central Asia so well that when reading this book I was sometimes convinced I was there in person. A wonderful book from start to finish.’ - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
‘Eden continues her explorations, not just of fascinating and often under-reported places, but also of the boundaries between reportage, travel and food. There is nobody writing about food at the moment who’s committed to this level of immersion and it rings out in every line.’ - Financial Times, Books of the Year
‘Beautifully written, quietly personal, generous, rich with detail, I absolutely loved this book.’ - Diana Henry
You can buy Red Sands in the Pushkin House Shop here.
Caroline Eden is a writer and critic contributing to The Guardian, Financial Times and The Times Literary Supplement. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Art of Eating Prize. Her latest book, Red Sands, published by Quadrille in 2020, is the follow-up to Black Sea.
Viv Groskop is a writer, comedian, TV and radio presenter and is the host of the podcasts How to Own the Room and We Can Rebuild Her. She is the author of five books including The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature (Penguin). A fluent Russian speaker, Viv is a former trustee of Pushkin House.