Colin Thubron has been described as 'one of the two or three best living travel writers, in some ways probably the best' Independent.His new book is a masterpiece. Written in lovely prose, it displays all the skills for which he is renowned - scholarship lightly worn, sensitivity as well as sensibility, and a magical mix of fascinating experiences in the present and extraordinary evocations of the past.
Colin Thubron is an acknowledged master of travel writing, and the winner of many prizes and awards. His first writing was about the Middle East - Damascus, Lebanon and Cyprus. In 1982 he travelled into the Soviet Union in an ancient Morris Marina, pursued by the KGB, a journey he recorded in Among the Russians. From these early experiences developed his classic travel books- Behind the Wall (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award), The Lost Heart of Asia, In Siberia (Prix Bouvier), Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet (all available in Vintage). In 2010 Colin Thubron became President the Royal Society of Literature.
It is hard to think of a better travel book written this
century
*The Times*
Shadow of the Silk Road is a work of boundless riches. Every
paragraph carries a captivating phrase...offering up an
understanding of our world today that is as immediate as tomorrow's
news, yet infinitely profound
*Mail on Sunday*
One of Thubron's great strengths is his compassion...his shimmering
prose creates a wonderful book, so multilayered that, when I
reached the end, I wanted to read it all over again
*Sunday Times*
Rich in humour, compassion and history, another confirmation, if
any more were needed, that Thubron is the pre-eminent travel writer
of his generation
*Sunday Telegraph*
A poetic volume - interesting, shocking and deeply engaging, the
work of a mature writer at the top of his game
*Daily Telegraph*
It is hard to think of a better travel book written this century *
The Times *
Shadow of the Silk Road is a work of boundless riches. Every
paragraph carries a captivating phrase...offering up an
understanding of our world today that is as immediate as tomorrow's
news, yet infinitely profound -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
One of Thubron's great strengths is his compassion...his shimmering
prose creates a wonderful book, so multilayered that, when I
reached the end, I wanted to read it all over again * Sunday Times
*
Rich in humour, compassion and history, another confirmation, if
any more were needed, that Thubron is the pre-eminent travel writer
of his generation * Sunday Telegraph *
A poetic volume - interesting, shocking and deeply engaging, the
work of a mature writer at the top of his game -- Sara Wheeler *
Daily Telegraph *
In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron (In Siberia; Mirror to Damascus) follows the course-or at least the general drift-of the ancient network of trade routes that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The author travels third-class all the way, in crowded, stifling railroad cars and rattle-trap buses and cars, staying at crummy inns or farmers' houses, subject to shakedowns by border guards and constant harassment-even quarantine-by health officials hunting the SARS virus. Physically, these often monotonously arid, hilly regions of Central Asia tend to go by in a swirl of dun-colored landscapes studded with Buddha shrines in varying states of repair or ruin, but Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama. Certain themes also color his offbeat encounters with locals-most of them want to get the hell out of Central Asia-but again he susses out the infinite variety of ordinary misery. The conduit by which an entire continent exchanged its commodities, cultures and peoples-Thubron finds traces of Roman legionaries and mummies of Celtic tribesmen in western China-the Silk Road becomes for him an evocative metaphor for the mingling of experiences and influences that is the essence of travel. (July 3) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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