"While many observers see the war in Ukraine as being between Russians and Ukrainians, there is a third nation involved in this conflict: the Muslim Crimean Tatars. Rayfield tells their story in an epic account of Europe's last Mongol khanate and its long wars with Russia that ultimately led to tsarist conquest and a Soviet-era genocide. The story of this small ethnic group's struggle to survive continues up to this very day as the Crimean Tatars seek to rebuild their shattered nation in a beloved Crimean homeland that has once again been invaded by their historic Russian foes."

Brian Glyn Williams, author of "The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest" and "Inferno in Chechnya"

"Rayfield has written a magisterial history of the Crimean Tatars, who in centuries past had a deep and unduly overlooked impact on war and peace in Poland, Austria, and Russia. Rayfield’s book takes us right through to the Putin era, giving a vivid picture of a people who once terrified their neighbors and are now again threatened with extinction in their homeland."

Robert Service, emeritus professor of Russian history, St Antony's College, University of Oxford

"A remarkable and revelatory work of phenomenal historical scholarship, written with great verve and aplomb. A classic of its kind."

William Boyd