Non-Fiction: Review of The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar

If there is any part of the globe which has a giant question mark stamped on it in most people's minds, it's the Stans—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Of course for people living in Central Asia there is no mystery. But it is a giant swathe of land for which most Westerners have little if any knowledge. Looking to alleviate this situation while delving into personal mysteries is Sofia Samatar's 2022 travelogue-cum-historical examination, The White Mosque: A Memoir.

To my admittedly limited knowledge, Sofia Samatar is predominantly known for her fiction. (Check out A Stranger in Olondria if you are interested in a well-written, non-generic fantasy novel that cares about culture and language.) At least that is how I know her—I even jumped on The White Mosque initially thinking it was fiction. To be clear it's not, but the style of writing leans in that direction.

The White Mosque is a woven narrative. Content is framed by the first-person view of a woman (Samatar herself), and her experiences on a holiday tour of Uzbekistan. Woven into her travels is the history of the region, from Mennonites to Mongols to Arabs to Slavs. Woven yet deeper is Samatar's personal history, one which links with a number of points from the region's history yet remains separate (i.e. African roots). And woven further still is a questing, a yearning from Samatar to better understand herself and the history. Questions and moments of surprise encountering the country and culture complement this latter strand.

In sum, this would make The White Mosque a passion project. And indeed that would be the book's heart of hearts. Samatar has a deep, genuine interest in exploring the history of the region and herself alongside apologetics for the lack of recognition—the giant question mark—over the Stans. Lovingly and fervently Samatar describes Central Asia's events past and present through the lens of her life, giving the reader a view to the region and author.

While not as overt an exercise as it could have been, The White Mosque remains a book in the spirit of the early 21st century, i.e. hung up on the idea of identity. The Stans a major melting pot of eastern, western, Christian, Islamic, and Asian culture, along with the randomness of human diaspora (e.g. Mennonnites), there are a lot of identities to parse as Samatar tries to better understand the situation, personal and geographical. Again, the book could have been a significantly more trivial exercise in taxonomy. Altogether it feels an appropriate balance, particularly from the historical perspectuve, with everything else up to the reader's tolerance for Samatar's exploration of strands of identity. It's fair to say identitarianism tinges the book rather than colors it.

In the end, The White Mosque is a book whose success hinges on the reader's interest in Samatar as a person and the questions she is looking to answer, predominantly: What is life like in Central Asia and how does it relate to her heritage? There are significant amounts of well-presented history to engage the reader, but the book remains a passion project. As with all such projects the reader's interests must align, or be open to aligning with the passion for the text to have a chance at engaging them. Samatar does a great job extending her skills as a novelist into non-fiction by constantly shifting perspective, overlapping content, and setting scenes—preventing the sum from being a dry exercise in diaries and academia. In doing so she extends a proverbial olive branch to the would-be reader should you find the book's concept interesting.