Shadow of the silk road.EXCELLENT The greatest land route. Despite its name, the Silk Road--the almost mythical subject of Colin Thubron's ninth travel book--is not a single road but a vast network of trade routes that have conducted merchants, goods, explorers, and armies from east to west and west to east since 1500 BC. Tracing the 7,000-mile, officially unmarked route from Xian, China, to Antioch, Turkey, took the 60-something Thubron two years and led him through countries and among people he had written about as many as 40 years earlier. Thubron travels rough--hitchhiking, drinking with beggars, staying in villagers' mud huts--and connects with the people he meets along the way. Shadow of the Silk Road Silk Road Ancient trade route that linked China with Europe. Originally a caravan route and used from c. 100 BC, the 4,000-mi (6,400-km) road started in Xi'an, China, followed the Great Wall to the northwest, climbed the Pamir Mtns. is a story of continuity and change, of what is lost and what is gained in the encounter between the ancient and the modern. HarperCollins. 363 pages. $25.95. ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 006123172X [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Economist CLASSIC "Shadow of the Silk Road is an astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. achievement--both the journey and the book. Mr. Thubron's tenacity, endurance, stamina and erudition er·u·di·tion n. Deep, extensive learning. See Synonyms at knowledge. Erudition of editors—Hare. Noun 1. metamorphose into exquisite prose." Guardian CLASSIC "Some reviewers detected an elegiac el·e·gi·ac adj. 1. Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past: an elegiac lament for youthful ideals. 2. undertow in the work, a sense of swansong or the final big journey of our most gifted travel writer. Wherever the road takes [Thubron] to from here, Shadow of the Silk Road--the most important travel book of 2006--is a masterpiece." RORY MACLEAN Washington Post CLASSIC "Obviously, [Thubron] had an uncommonly interesting and rewarding time, and he has now written an uncommonly interesting and rewarding book about it. ... All in all, a splendid book." JONATHAN YARDLEY NY Times Book Review EXCELLENT "Shadow of the Silk Road is moving in a way that's rare in travel literature, sidestepping nostalgia even as it notes its pull. Thubron goes to places most other sojourners can't--because they're not so much geographic locations as states of mind, formed from the lifelong accretion of intriguing facts, mistaken hopes, mysteries." LORAINE LORAINE Long-Range Intercept Experiment ADAMS San Francisco Chronicle The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young.[2] The paper grew along with San Francisco to become the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the EXCELLENT "Thubron has done it all, with sparkling grace. ... [He] is a brilliant brooder brooder stage two of the usual bird rearing sequence. After hatching the baby birds are put into a brooder house, usually with a heat source attached, for rearing. Also used as a management strategy for baby pigs which are weaned early, at 3 weeks. , artful in his melancholy." PETER LEWIS Boston Globe EXCELLENT "Thubron is a patient traveler, invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil finding someone
with whom to converse, learning life stories and local legends. His
accounts are brief but vivid." MICHAEL KENEY
CRITICAL SUMMARY Colin Thubron has spent a lifetime exploring Asia, and he displays his significant regional knowledge and experience in Shadow of the Silk Road. Universally acknowledged as one of our best living travel writers, Thubron brings to this book the astute perception for which he is known and the beautiful prose style he has honed for more than 40 years; what is even more impressive, however, is the incredible sense of enthusiasm he brings both to his journey and to his writing. As Jonathan Yardley wrote in the Washington Post, "Colin Thubron [is an] intrepid, resourceful and immensely talented writer who has made a career out of going to out of the way places and then writing brilliantly about them." Shadow of the Silk Road is Thubron at his best. |
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