Guilty. I did consider mentioning it though not actually nominating it. Like Paola lesson learned. Now that the nominating process is closed I will mention a couple of other books I considered putting out there, but I did not because these books are not recent and both are associated with the Ukraine, not Islamic countries that were once part of the USSR.

The first is Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov. This is a very good book set in Kiev during the German occupation of WWII.

The second is And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov. I actually read this way back in high school, being inspired to it by taking an elective course in Russian history. This is actually the first half of a two novel epic about a family of Don Cossacks set over the crucial period from just prior to WWI through the following civil war in Russia.