About the book: 2004 / In its first incarnation, this book was an A4 notebook, covered in neat school handwriting. Then she got a name: “The Dancer from Khiva, or the Story of the Innocent.” This is the story of a woman born in the mid-sixties of the 20th century in a small Central Asian village, on the outskirts of what was then a great empire. She still lives among us. Despite the many dramatic collisions in life, “The Story of the Innocent,” told by a small dark woman named Bibish, gives us hope. Once you open this book today, you will not be able to put it aside without reading it to the end.