Lisa Reisch

The Cave Of The Yellow Dog is a depiction of the everyday life of Mongolia’s nomads, and some of the struggles they face. Most of this short novella focuses on the Batchuluun family at their summer camp, although throughout the book there are also short chapters that give information on various aspects of nomadic Mongolian life including the gers (tents), food and diet, a very brief overview of Mongolian politics, the education system, traditional deel clothing and various customs.

There show more are also three sections of beautiful photos, many of which showcase the stunning Mongolian landscape.

The Batchuluun family is just Dad, Mum and three kids (the oldest is 6) out on the vast Mongolian Steppes with 300 animals. It amazed me what chores Nansaa (6yo) and Nansalmaa (4yo) had to do to help out their family. This includied Nansaa on horseback taking the herd away from the camp for a day, by herself, to find better grazing while her father was away selling sheep skins. Or Nansalmaa being left in charge of her 18 month old brother for periods of time. Self reliance is obviously important and while these kids seem to be very mature and take on some big responsibilities, they still find time to just be kids.

I was particularly interested in how the nomadic lifestyle works in today’s world of land ownership etc. A brief overview is given, but I would have liked more details. Actually I would have liked more details on most of what this book covers. We are only with the Batchuluun family during summer when it is just their family and the animals. In winter they camp in a larger camp with extended family and I would’ve liked to read about this part of their life as well. This book was written as a companion to a documentary of the same name, and it shows.

This is a very quick and easy book to read. It's only a basic introduction, but it offers an extremely interesting insight into the lifestyle of nomadic Mongolians. show less

This was a quick but very interesting read. From the moment I could read, I've been interested in books about how other people live. Not meaning people similar like me (from Italy, Russia etc.) but really different like Native Americans, Inuit. I never came across a book about people in Mongolia.
So... I read this book and I liked it. That there are tensions between old ways and new ways of living didn't come out clearly to me. But I liked the mixture of cultural facts, Nansaa's adventures show more and the wonderful pictures. show less

Quick, interesting book by two student film makers one of whom is travelling back to her homeland to make her graduation film (also available as a film by the same name). The book follows their time with a nomadic Mongolian family and contains insights into everyday life, Mongolian culture -its poetry and love of singing - and very briefly, Mongolian political history. The brevity of all these descriptions led me scouring the interwebs for further information on a couple of accounts. I show more enjoyed it. show less

The Cave of the Yellow Dog is part memoir, part "child find a dog" story. It is okay, but not brilliant, at both. I think this book would be most helpful to someone who is going to watch the movie version of Cave, where this book provides the necessary background and cultural information needed to enjoy the film without trying to figure out what is going on every minue or so.

The book was not a long or difficult read. I think part of why I did not explicitly enjoy it is because I was reading show more it for a class. I would recommend it to someone who would like to learn more about Mongolian culture. show less