There was never one Silk Road - but several. The route chosen by Colin Thubron passes through China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, taking in the most sterile desert on earth (the Taklamakan) and the strife-torn mountain valleys of today's conflicts, as he travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor (the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people) to the ancient port of Antioch, by local bus, truck, car - occasionally Landrover, horse or camel. He covers 7,000 miles in 8 months, and confesses that it is the most difficult, complex and ambitious journey he has undertaken in 40 years of travel. The Silk Road is a huge network of arteries and veins, splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. Chinese silk has turned up in the hair of a 10th-century-BC Egyptian mummy; equally, the tartan plaids of 3000-year-old mummies in the Chinese desert echo those of early Celts. To be travelling the Silk Road, writes Colin Thubron, is to be travelling the history of the world: tracing the passage not just of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions. Yet - despite the lure of the history - this book is as much about Asia today. Its themes include different Islams (oppressed in China; fervent in Afghanistan and Iran; cautiously monitored in Uzbekistan); contrast (no cities could be more different than ancient Samarkand and modern Teheran); and the way that today's borders are meaningless because the true boundaries are made by tribe, ethnicity, language and religion. "Shadow of the Silk Road" is a brilliant account of an ancient world in modern ferment.
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"What a journey, what a book" -- Sunday Express
"[Thubron] brilliantly evokes the history and culture"
-- The Good Book Guide, April 2007
"an important contemporary account of...some of the most
significant...transactions in human history" -- TLS
"the reliable storyteller we needed in place of Marco Polo. His
stock in trade makes him invaluable to us" -- Independent on Sunday
'shimmering prose... so multilayered that, when I reached the end,
I wanted to read it all over again.’ -- Christina Lamb, Sunday Times
Singularly fine prose -- Good Book Guide
"[Thubron] brilliantly evokes the history and culture"
-- The Good Book Guide, April 2007
"an important contemporary account of...some of the most
significant...transactions in human history" -- TLS
"the reliable storyteller we needed in place of Marco Polo. His
stock in trade makes him invaluable to us" -- Independent on Sunday
'shimmering prose... so multilayered that, when I reached the end,
I wanted to read it all over again.’ -- Christina Lamb, Sunday Times
Singularly fine prose -- Good Book Guide
Book Description
Colin Thubron has been described as 'one of the two or three best living travel writers, in some ways probably the best' - Independent
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165 of 169 people found the following review helpful
By MarkE
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
113 of 116 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much religion
I get the feeling that the author is far more interested in religion than most of the people he meets. Also there are descriptions of hundreds of buildings, but no photographs! Read more
Published 2 months ago by John Priestley
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Old School Travel Writing by Colin Thubron, Ibn Battuta Would Have...
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this travel book by Colin Thubron: "Shadow of the Silk Road" as it clearly gives you an excellent description of the geographical and topographical... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Matloub Husayn-Ali-Khan
4.0 out of 5 stars
an interesting, dreamlike, account of an amazing journey
This is an interesting account of Colin Thubron's overland journey from China to Turkey following the route of the ancient silk road, in which the author recounts his encounters... Read more
Published 6 months ago by markr
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I had previously bought this book in paperback form and when I bought my Kindle put the paperback into a local charity book shop. Read more
Published 6 months ago by thomas malarkey
4.0 out of 5 stars
Makes a change
I fancy myself as quite the armchair traveller, and I bought this book, along with another by Thubron, as an impulse purchase in my local Waterstone's. Read more
Published 13 months ago by S
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enlightening journey into the Past and the Present
The talented travel writer Colin Thubron was in my opinion exceptionally brave to have made this journey in order to write this book, but the result is a very worthwhile insight... Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly gripping writing!
I so enjoyed this thrilling, entertaining and occasionally downright frightening account of this epic journey by a lone traveller! Read more
Published 18 months ago by Frankkiep
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent travel writing
This book follows Thubron on a long journey following the old silk trade routes from Xian to Antioch. Read more
Published 19 months ago by History Geek
4.0 out of 5 stars
silk routes
The author describes his travels on one of the silk roades in fact there were dozens of silk roads on land and sea. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2011 by G. I. Forbes
5.0 out of 5 stars
`Sometimes a journey arises out of hope and instinct, ..'
Colin Thubron's journey along the Silk Road (in 2003 and 2004) originated in Xian, at the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, passed through the mountains of Central Asia, across northern... Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2011 by J. Cameron-Smith
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