Shadow of the Silk Road - by Colin Thubron (Paperback)

About the Book

In his latest absorbing travel epic, the author of "In Siberia" and "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.

From the Back Cover

To travel the Silk Road, the greatest land route on earth, is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions, and inventions. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months--out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey--and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.

Review Quotes

"An exhausting journey and a marvelous book." - Harper's Magazine
"Splendid...Sumptuously detailed, elegantly written and riveting...Thubron misses nothing." - Providence Journal
"A fantastically descriptive writer, Thubron digs through the history of Central Asia...Perfect for vicarious travelers." - New York magazine
"Epic Chinese odyssey . . . [Thubron's] eye for telling details and curiosities--both historical and contemporary . . . serves him well." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"[Thubron is] intrepid, resourceful . . . and immensely talented . . . a splendid book." - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
"A sublime travel writer . . . [Thubron captures] the . . . lives of ordinary people with lyricism, compassion, and wit." - Boston Globe
"Thubron has done it all, with sparkling grace . . . He is a brilliant brooder, artful in his melancholy." - San Francisco Chronicle
"[Thubron] augments his trenchant narrative with impressive historical background and evocative, lyrical prose...An impressive, rewarding...trek." - Kirkus Reviews
"Moving in a way that's rare in travel literature...Thubron goes to places most other sojourners can't." - Lorraine Adams, New York Times Book Review
"An illuminating account of a breathtaking journey." - Booklist
"[An] absorbing travel epic...Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama."" - Publishers Weekly (starred review)