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| Shadow of the Silk Road | 
 enlarge | Author: Colin Thubron
Publisher: HarperCollins
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $4.11
You Save: $21.84 (84%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  (24 reviews)
Sales Rank: 65252
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 006123172X
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.8
EAN: 9780061231728
ASIN: 006123172X
Publication Date: July 1, 2007
Release Date: July 3, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wonderful, magical travel story September 2, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't want to put this down. Places that I've wanted to see if I had the opportunity and courage come alive in the book. Thubron describes legends and historical events over millennia, but they all fit together along with the people he meets and the landscapes he travels through. He describes with sensitivity and humanity what has been lost with time but also what is there now, often the generosity of the people he meets and their way of life. Wonderful!
 The Woven Wind August 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Will be liked by those who enjoy reading about hard-travel experiences. Colin Thubron has a keen ear for dialogue and an expressive pen. Informative on a number of issues from the art of silk making to China's on-going eastern movements.
I do think the author's writing sometimes strays into overly ornate descriptions of the scenery on his lengthy journey across China to Antioch. An example: "Where the Jumgal valley met the massif of Sussmayer, a painted wall of mountain rose. The cliffs were torn with symmetrical scars, as if by some monstrous animal, and fell to the track in violent slabs of black and apricot. Sometimes its scree was pure coal." Also, the author has an odd writer's tic, in that he uses the word "mist" in some form at least fifteen times (...the villages were misted in pear blossom/...the horizon leveled to a dove-grey mist, etc.)
A person of the rational Enlightenment will find depressing the darkness of mind still prevalent in much of the Arab/Persian part of the ancient Silk Road, where living in the far past seems to be the unfortunate standard.
shadow of the silk road August 26, 2007
2 out of 15 found this review helpful
I haven't actually read it yet, but plan to. Someone else is reading it and says it is very good and an interesting account of travel through what is mostly a mysterious area to many.
One of the Best Travel Books August 25, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of the best travel books I read so far. I noticed some reviewer comparing him with Bill Bryson. I enjoyed Bryson's book too. Thubron is less humurous, but with more depth. I am very impressed with his knowledge of the central Asia. Being from China myself, I was shocked to read his account of lost Roman legion and the early Christian relics in the heart of China. This book keeps you wonder about the world away. I was also touched by the warmth of the people he encountered during his travel. Those people have suffered enough through history, yet they welcomed a foreign traveller like their family members. What a generous and handsome group of people---be it Afghans, Uzbeks, Tajks, or others. The book is beautifully written.
It is by chance I picked up this book and I'm glad I did. I am going to check out some other books he wrote.
This guy has his feet on the ground August 24, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Once again, Colin Thubron gets down to the local, the personal, the down and dirty level to tell about the countries he goes through. This guy lives his travels. Fascinating. Unvarnished. Up close. Real. No gloss, no glitter. From China all the way to the Mediterranean. Wow.
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