'Total and instant immersion. thoroughly compelling and powerful.' - Asian Review of Books In the steppes of High Asia, the year 1166. 'What is a Mongol? - As free as the geese in the air, as in unison. The flights of the geese promise us we don't give up independence, to unite.' The hundred tribes of the Mongols have come together with one aim: to push back against the walls that have crept onto the steppe - farther than China has ever extended its walls before. Walls are repugnant to a nomad. But can people on horses push them down, even with a united effort? This story begins when nobody has heard of Mongols - not even most Chinese, who think the vast Northern Waste at its weakest and are right.

A spectacular history starts obscurely. Against Walls is the first in a trilogy that gives voice to the Mongols in their explosive encounter with the great world under Tchingis Khan. Both epic and intimate, Amgalant sees the world through Mongol eyes. It's different from the world you know.