In the tradition of Prague and White Teeth, This Is Not Civilization is an inspired, sweeping debut novel that hopscotches from Arizona to Central Asia to Istanbul with a well-meaning, if misguided, young Peace Corps volunteer. Jeff Hartig lies at the center of this modern take on the American-abroad tale, which brings together four people from vastly different backgrounds, each struggling with the push and pull of home. A young Apache, Adam Dale, forsakes the reservation for the promise of a world he knows little about. Anarbek Tashtanaliev, of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, operates a cheese factory that no longer produces cheese. Nazira, his daughter, strains against the confines of their village’s age-old traditions. With captivating insight, realism, and humor, Robert Rosenberg delivers a sensitive story about the cost of trying to do good in the world. A wonderful work; highly recommended. Library Journal Starred An ambitious, bighearted debut...intelligent, earnest, and highly readable. Kirkus Reviews [A] Politically astute and surprisingly swift read. TimeOut New York The details are bracing and exact...journalistic, humane and heart-wrenching. -- Christopher Buckley The New York Times Book Review What a generous, big-hearted book this is, perceptive enough to catch the goodness in [its characters]. Christian Science Monitor [an] ambitious, sincere book...[with] many lovely touches. Newsday a well-written, engaging, and promising debut. Booklist, ALA a brave adventure into the heart of a new world...sparkling. Los Angeles Times Rollicking...pitch perfect...a vibrant mix of the serious and the absurd. Publishers Weekly Gripping...exotic and intimate. Every line rings with authenticity, every moment breathes with love and life and heartache. A beautiful, resonant book. - Brady Udall, author of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint This novel should do for us what The Quiet American did for an earlier generation -- put into perspective Americans' well-meaning but arrogant involvement in the affairs of very different cultures. Beware: you're likely to stay up all night to finish it. --Phyllis Rose, author of Parallel Lives For the past twenty years, returned Peace Corps volunteers--Paul Theroux, Norman Rush, Maria Thomas, Richard Wiley et al--have won just about every major literary award in the country, and Robert Rosenberg seems destined to be a member of this distinguished group of writers. This Is Not Civilization is a wonderful first novel, full of the marvelous compressions and juxtapositions and clashes that have indeed made the world a very small place. --Bob Shacochis, winner of the National Book Award This Is Not Civilization is a remarkable novel that illuminates the most important struggle of our times: to find a self and to find kindredness in a world where our shared humanity is often lost to the claims of our superficial differences. Robert Rosenberg has written not only a wonderfully readable work of fiction but also an important one. --Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Beautiful...Rosenberg should be thanked for his insights into Middle Eastern culture at a time when understanding of that troubled region is essential. --James Alan McPherson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize So how does first novelist Rosenberg manage to pull it off so beautifully?... A wonderful work; highly recommended. -- Library Journal, (starred review) "Though most Peace Corps books are interesting, and some well written, few are literature. Nevertheless, every ten years or so a Peace Corps novel comes along that transcends our experience, transcends the ordinary 'Peace Corps story.' I can think of a handful of truly first rate books of fiction about our experience... And now we have Robert Rosenberg and his novel, THIS IS NOT CIVILIZATION." -- John Coyne - editor, Peacecorpswriters.org ROBERT ROSENBERG held an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a master's in education. He lived in Kyrgyzstan, Istanbul, and Cibecue, a small Apache village.  This Is Not Civilization By Robert Rosenberg Houghton Mifflin Company Copyright © 2005 Robert Rosenberg All right reserved. ISBN: 9780618562060 1 The idea of using porn films to encourage the dairy cows to breed was a poor one. Anarbek Tashtanaliev, the manager of the cheese factory, had been inspired by a Moscow news broadcast. From Russia the television signal crossed the Kazakh steppes, was beamed to Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, and then relayed up and over the Tien Shan range and into desolate pockets of the new nation. If the Central Asian weather was favorable, the forgotten village of Kyzyl Adyr–Kirovka received the world news. As a result, one Wednesday Anarbek discovered that the Chinese had successfully used taped videos of fornicating bears to coax pandas to breed. The possibility of increased productivity based on a regimen of bovine erotica seemed promising. And the scheme had the single merit of all brilli