Shadow of the Silk Road

Colin Thubron is such an evocative writer. This is a fascinating read about a fascinating journey.

Travels in an unknown region (0/0 people found this helpful)

I enjoyed Mr Thubron's latest addition to his collection of travel books. The region visits in this book is relatively unknown in the West, even the bigger countries such as Kazakhstan do not feature regularly in the media. The author certainly gives those of us who know little of the region a very interesting taste of what life is like for the people's of central Asia and western China.

I enjoyed most the history of the places the author visited and equally enjoyable were the author's stories of discussions he had with people he met along the way as this gave an insight into their daily lives. Towards the end of the book her travel across Iran and this is arguably the best part of the book. Iran was never somewhere I'd have considered visiting before reading this book but having read it, Iran sounds like a fascinating place with friendly people. I found some of the descriptive passages (especially of places/locations) a bit long-winded but that aside, the book is well worth reading.

An experience by proxi (7/7 people found this helpful)

At the time of this review, I am about 70% through the book, which may mean that my views are unimportant compared with the three people reporting before me. However, I think that anyone who reads this book is likely to experience the feelings that I express here. Firstly an immense admiration for the stamina and bravery of Colin Thubron for undertaking such a demanding journey, at a time of life when most people are taking care to not over-extend themselves. Secondly, a feeling of inadequacy, faced with Thubron's immense command of the history of the regions he visits; the upside of this, on the other hand, is my own vastly increased knowledge by following up the information in the book - for example the life and times of Tamerlane. Finally, and slightly critically, I feel that Thubron's much admired writing does suffer from "simile overload" when describing the environment. Overall though it is a pleasure to read a travel book which concentrates on revealing the peoples and countries through which the author passes rather than revealing himself.

Serious travel, by a real grown up (75/76 people found this helpful)

If your experience of travel writing is mainly the likes of Bill Bryson, Tony Hawks and Michael Palin, this is something totally different. Colin Thubron is almost intimidatingly intelligent and perceptive. He does not patronise the reader but assumes you are as intelligent as he is, and he wants to share what he is seeing and hearing. As he speaks many languages and seems to have the gift of picking up a little of each new language as he hears it, he has a lot to report, and he does so clearly and accurately (so far as I can tell). There are few, if any, of the "humourously colourful locals" found in other travel books, partly because I think Thubron respects people's dignity too much to laugh at them in this way. He is, perhaps, part of a previous generation of travel writers, which I do not consider a bad thing.

Like the best travel books you will learn about the geography and topography of the areas Thubron travels through, you will learn something about the locals he meets on his travels, and about the history of each place he visits as he passes through. One revelation for me (perhaps others were already aware) was that the silk route was seldom travelled from end to end; most merchants traded with the next towns in each direction. It was through a relay that goods passed from merchant to merchant, from Antioch to Beijing, and beyond in each case. Thus the Romans in the West had no idea of China, while the Chinese had no idea of the Roman empire. By the end of the book the reader will have some idea of both cultures, and those between. You will also have some idea of the people on the silk road today; they may not be what you expect from those countries.

A journey with Thubron through the medium of this book is a delight, but you will need to think at times. A journey at his side in reality might be stressfull because I would worry about falling short of his expectations of me. I would still sign up tomorrow.

Serious travel-writing about an epic journey (58/59 people found this helpful)

For those who like in-depth accounts of epic journeys, this book is perfect. No Bryson of Palin-style humour here, rather a serious traveller of the old-school, who does it the hard way, pushing into remote, forbidding regions, taking risks in a way which suggests he has given up on life itself, Colin Thubron provides us with adventure by proxy, and draws us into his travels, making us feel we are catching glimpses of places no Westerner has visited before. It goes without saying that Thurbron writes well. This is literate travel writing which does not attempt to woo the reader with humour or pointless anecdotes. Every word is there for a purpose, and this is a book to be read slowly and savoured.

The journey is fascinating. Through northern China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, then through Iran and into Turkey, we visit places which are definitely off the tourist trail. Thubron had to work hard to get past border posts and pushed his luck with renegade officials to a startling degree, in order to get into the heart of tribal lands, where the reader feels he will find it hard to leave in one piece. His descriptions of landscape are magnificent - we can feel the desolation of the Gobi desert, and he uses more adjectives to describe mountain ranges than I would have thought possible. We read of the time of change which has come to these lands, but frankly, this is nothing new for them, for Thubron tells us of their troubled pasts, with marauding armies constantly laying waste and altering boundaries until the rise of the next dispensation. The people he describes seem to have survived constant massacre and genocide, and yet retained their culture, their language and their physical characteristics.

I wondererd about the lack of photographs in the book, and then towards the end, when crossing a border, Thubron lets slip that it was easier because he did not carry a camera. While accepting that in some of the regions he visited, a camera would have resulted in his entry being blocked, I do feel that some photographs would have hepled fill in some of the inevitable gaps in the word pictures Thubron paints so readily. This is a small criticism however of what is an extremely high quality piece of travel writing, and which is definitely one I will not be recycling.

Colin Thubron

Reader Reviews:

wonderful hypnotic book (1/1 people found this helpful)

Travels in an unknown region (0/0 people found this helpful)

An experience by proxi (7/7 people found this helpful)

Serious travel, by a real grown up (75/76 people found this helpful)

Serious travel-writing about an epic journey (58/59 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories