Soon after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Keith Rosten leaves the United States to be a Fulbright Lecturer in newly-independent Kazakhstan. In "Once in Kazakhstan," Rosten draws a sometimes humorous portrait of a critical period in the emergence of this Central Asian country, interweaving the challenges and exhilaration of living in Kazakhstan with the historical backdrop of a nation grappling with its independence.

From horse heads in the Central Market, to guns on the ski slopes, and to the first-ever parliamentary elections, Rosten takes you on a whirlwind tour of the country....