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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.8
EAN: 9780061231728
ISBN: 006123172X
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: July 01, 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: July 03, 2007
Sales Rank: 35313
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Shadow of the Silk Road records a journey along the greatest land route on earth. Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran and into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron covers some seven thousand miles in eight months. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart and camel, he travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people, to the ancient port of Antioch—in perhaps the most difficult and ambitious journey he has undertaken in forty years of travel.
The Silk Road is a huge network of arteries splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. To travel it is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions and inventions. But alongside this rich and astonishing past, Shadow of the Silk Road is also about Asia today: a continent of upheaval.
One of the trademarks of Colin Thubron's travel writing is the beauty of his prose; another is his gift for talking to people and getting them to talk to him. Shadow of the Silk Road encounters Islamic countries in many forms. It is about changes in China, transformed since the Cultural Revolution. It is about false nationalisms and the world's discontented margins, where the true boundaries are not political borders but the frontiers of tribe, ethnicity, language and religion. It is a magnificent and important account of an ancient world in modern ferment.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Thubron's prose seems tired compared to some of his earlier writing, almost as if he's forcing himself to write well. On occasion, it results in prose on the darker end of purple, very stilted to a modern ear (or at least to my ear). My larger criticism has to do with the lenses through which he sees the world: the glories of a romanticized past are juxtaposed against a sad, dysfunctional present. The pattern is old hack, and would be harmlessly irritating if Thubron wasn't following the same formula ... Read More
Rating:  -
I am actually only half way through this book. I became interested in travel writings after reading all of Ryszard Kapuscinski's reportage/diaries, also a world traveler who writes with exquisite decorum. I enjoy objective, beautifully written prose which is the flavor I find in Colin Thubron's book. I like his humanity, curiosity, and tolerance of the people he meets. This book will transcend and include you in his travels. It is very educational and will expand your knowledge of peoples of another world.
Rating:  -
Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.)
Shadow of the Silk Road
"In the Footsteps of Marco Polo"
"For hours I tramped along a mountain road forty miles south of Zhangye, toward the cliff temples of Matisi, before the headlights of a van swung bleakly into view through the falling snow. Its driver shouted that the road ahead was closed: panic over the SARS virus was bringing everything to a standstill. All the same, he said, he would get me through. We clattered unquestioned past ... Read More
Rating: -
El Sr. Thubron es un viajero de antiguo cuño. No usa máquinas fotográficas. Si es que toma algunos apuntes, me imagino que lo hace sobre una Moleskine. Allí,tal vez, también dibuja. Educado en Eton y Oxford, su prosa es elegante y maravillosa. Hipnotiza al lector. Calla para dejar que los propios personajes hablen. Ha gastado su vida en Asia. Su conocimento llega al grado de la erudición, aunque nunca intimida con ello.
Lo veo en la línea de un Patrick Leigh Fermor o de R. Kapukzinski.
Se lo ... Read More
Rating: -
Colin Thubron's vivid and very well written descriptions make us think about the complexity of Asia. His book is not just the report of a long journey, but also a valuable contribution for us to understand better the humankind. A perfect combination of realistic reports, history and culture. Thubron meets real people, talks about the past and also about the present, sometimes painful, of their vanishing way of life.
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