Mongolia

Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Tale in Mongolia, by Louisa Waugh (2003). After living for two years in Mongolia's capital, Waugh trades her urban life for a ger (yurt) to live amongst camel herders, Mongol Halkhs, and Muslim Kazakhs in the remote western town of Tsengel. In a land of vast deserts, upland steppes, and high mountain ranges, Waugh survives long winters and short summers and learns that a nomadic, Siberian life is controlled by the seasons.

Wolf Totem, by Jiang Rong (2008). Life on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia is hard and brutal, but it embodies an edifying nobility and symmetry too. That's a sweeping overview of this long and dense book, but the novel's prime power is in its closely observed details, particularly of wolves and their relationship with men.