I recently attended a talk at the Royal Geographical Society by Daniel Metcalf who has just published a book entitled “Out of Steppe”.
Introduced by Michael Palin, the fascinating talk focused on the small minority ethnic groups of Central Asia including the Hazara of Afghanistan, the Kalasha of Northwest Pakistan, the Karakalpaks of Western Uzbekistan, the Germans of Northern Kazakhstan, the Jews of Bukhara, Uzbekistan and the Yaknobis of Tajikistan.
Having personally visited a number of the areas that Daniel talked about it reignited my own enthusiasm for the Central Asian region.