"This enthralling ride through the past before arriving in the present, through legend before fact, this deft retelling of the tragedy of these mountains conveys a great deal about life in the Caucasus today."

Vanora Bennett | Times Literary Supplement

"This engaging book--part travelogue, part history--attempts to chart [Shamil’s] life and his legacy, offering valid insights en route into this flashpoint

Daily Mail

"This is an often mesmerizing account of the quest to decipher the power of the enigmatic Talisman of Chechen resistance against Russia, Imam Shamil. . . . A wonderfully wrought work which interweaves past and present."

Jonathan Spence | The Herald (Glasgow)

"[Griffin] wonderfully weaves historical facts and compelling characters in this adventure through the Caucasus region. . . . An excellent and richly detailed look at an important but relatively little-known geopolitical region."

Publisher's Weekly

"Griffin is a fine writer with a sharp sense of both humor and irony. This memoir of his journey is filled with revealing episodes that are both amusing and sometimes frightening. This work is part history, part travelogue, and part lament for people who cherish their past but remain imprisoned by it."

Jay Freeman | Booklist

"Griffin, in this fine part-travelogue, part-historical and mythic tale, evokes and describes the Caucasus so well that I can see and feel the place. Alas, it reveals the same tribal terrors of other lands, in a remote realm of splintered mountains, inaccessible stone villages, savagery, bloodshed, violence, dismemberment, blood feuds, and the like. This doesn’t detract from Griffin’s stirring book, but he once again conjures up the cruel clashes and brutal assaults that lie at the heart of darkness that is human history."

Sam Coale | Providence Journal

"A near perfect recipe to whet the appetite of any vicarious traveler."

Washington Times

"A complicated book, a carefully sculpted book, a disturbing book (think kidnappings and beheadings), a darkly comic book. All these statements are true about British novelist Griffin’s nonfiction account of his trek through the troubled tribal mountain regions between the Caspian and Black seas."

David Armstrong | San Francisci Chronicle

"Historians are likely to respond with respect and admiration for Griffin’s ability to make history come alive for the educated reading public beyond academia. His belief in the importance of history is also a welcome contribution in a time when the threat of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism tends to eliminate any public attention to the historical background to our cotnemporary world."

Austin Jersild | Russian Review