“Brilliant.”―Time “Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter.”―The New York Review of Books “Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all side been better described―or indeed, better explained…Offers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before.”―Foreign Affairs Since its publication in 2003, the first edition of Black Garden has become the definitive study of how Armenia and Azerbaijan, two southern Soviet republics, were pulled into a conflict that helped bring them to independence, spell the end the Soviet Union, and plunge a region of great strategic importance into a decade of turmoil. This important volume is both a careful reconstruction of the history of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict since 1988 and on-the-spot reporting of the convoluted aftermath. Part contemporary history, part travel book, part political analysis, the book is based on six months traveling through the south Caucasus, more than 120 original interviews in