Thubron (In Siberia, 2000, etc.) takes an arduous 7,000-mile
journey following the ancient silk trade route from inland China to
Turkey's Mediterranean coast.At the very least, his marathon
expedition through desert, mountains and war-scarred landscapes
testifies to the author's fortitude and resourcefulness. He's
quarantined by Chinese authorities during the SARS epidemic, nearly
killed by a drunk driver in a head-on collision and forced to
endure treatment of an abscessed tooth by a team of Iranian village
dentists who don't use anesthetic. Thubron attends a rock concert
staged in a Tehran military hospital, dodges suspicious guards at
several remote border crossings and searches out the tombs of
Genghis Khan, Omar Khayyam and Ayatollah Khomeini. He augments his
trenchant narrative with impressive historical background and
evocative lyrical prose: "In late autumn the road traversed a
near-desert plain. From time to time a faint, brown wash overhung
the horizon, as if a watercolorist had started painting mountains
there, then forgotten them." Even the most erudite readers,
however, may find themselves daunted and disoriented by this
lengthy sojourn in such consonant-laden regions as Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, complete with their obscure attendant
cultural histories. Until 1498, when the Portuguese sailed around
Africa and found a safer route to China's riches, the Silk Road
across central Asia was traveled by successions of invaders.
East-bound from Rome, Greece and Arabia came poetry, metals and
conquering armies. From China, traders carried westward such
wonders as silk, paper, gunpowder and the mechanical clock. Thubron
carefully picks through the cultural and archeological remains of a
half-dozen societies with a discerning eye and a scholar's
discipline, pausing to note the fallout from such relatively recent
arrivals as China's murderous Red Guards, the Taliban and ruthless
Afghan warlords. He also pauses long enough to meet and introduce a
host of memorable characters, including a Chinese college dean and
some Afghan truck drivers.An impressive, rewarding and occasionally
exhausting trek, most suitable for the hardcore travel reader.
(Kirkus Reviews)
A journey along the greatest land route on earth, from the master
of travel writing Colin Thubron On buses, donkey carts, trains,
jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first
great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of
Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran
into Kurdish Turkey. Covering over 7000 miles in eight months
Thubron recounts extraordinary adventures - a near-miss with a
drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell during the SARS
epidemic, undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic in
Iran - in inimitable prose. Shadow of the Silk Road is about Asia
today; a magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment.
'It is hard to think of a better travel book written this century'
Times 'Thubron is the pre-eminent travel writer of his generation'
Sunday Telegraph
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
