This book, Blood and Oil in the Orient, was beyond fantastic.

A few words of explanation or necessary about the author. The given name of the author is Mohammed Essad Bey. As disclosed and discovered by research of Thomas Reiss, detailed in a book called The Orientalist, a Jewish writer by the name of Lev Nussenbaum wrote under pen names Mohammed Essad Bey and Kurbain Said. Lev Nussenbaum was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. He and his father were forced to flee twice from Baku, the second time permanently. The book is largely the story of his pre-flight childhood in Baku, and the two flights. The sub text is the destruction and carnage caused by Joseph Stalin‘s Bolsheviks in that region.Separately, he wrote Stalin-the Making of a Fanatic. I have read that book and highly recommend that as well.

In the area in which he was doing his writing, from the late 1920s to the time of his death in 1941 or 1942, being a Jewish writer in places such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, Germany and Italy was not a good idea. Though the book is autobiographical in nature, it was necessary for him to fictionalize or distort his early history for that reason.

Parts of the book read like a triple version of National Geographic magazine. Other parts or a hair-raising adventure tale of flights through dangerous regions such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and modern-day Iran.

The book has numerous humorous and amusing turns. Thomas Reiss has written a very useful afterword to the book. For someone who wants to read unconventional material, about little known subjects, from a fresh point of view, I highly recommend this book. ( )

While Blood and Oil was supposed to be autobiographical non fiction much of it is made up by the author. The author Essad Bey was really born Lev Nussimbaum. He claimed to be a Muslim of noble birth but he was really jewish. His father really did become wealthy in the oil industry of the in the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution. Lev Nussimbaum/Essad Bey's life is examined in the recent book the Orientalist. After reading the Orientalist by Tom Reiss I wanted to read something by Essad Bey, go to the source and see the original. Even if it is made up it is still an amazing tale of travel and escape from the communists. ( )