The Convoy to Samarkand

Guzel Yakhina is the most prominent debutante in the history of contemporary Russian literature, a laureate of the "Big Book" and "Yasnaya Polyana" awards, and the author of bestsellers "Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes" and "My Children." Her new book, "Echelon to Samarkand," is a travel novel and a kind of "red Western."
1923. Echelon commander Deyev and commissar Belaya evacuate five hundred homeless children from Kazan to Samarkand.
A series of thrilling and terrifying adventures along the way, vast geography – from the forests of the Volga region and Kazakh steppes to the deserts of Kyzyl-Kum and the mountains of Turkestan, a palette of destinies and characters: refugee peasants, Chekists, Cossacks, the eccentric world of young vagrants with their language, psychology, superstitions, and hopes…