Scan barcode
A review by _head_full_of_books_
Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road takes us on a 7,000 miles journey from Xian, China to Antioch, Turkey. The author undertook this journey over a period of 8 months travelling by bus, truck, car, donkey cart and camel.
The Silk route has always intrigued me. It is one of the most ancient trade route which not only carried goods across the continent but is also responsible for the exchange of ideas, religions and inventions. The Silk route is not one single road but a network of arteries splitting and converging across Asia. This network enriched everything it passed thru. According to Thubron, no single person travelled from China to Turkey but silk was part of ancient Mediterranean life and Greek and Roman images were found in ancient China. Such was the reach of the road.
Throughout the journey, Thubron intermingles with locals to understand their way of living, thoughts, religious and political views. He discovers the curiosity and eagerness of the young and the ruminations of the old. The antiquity of the ruins Thubron visits echoes the time gone by. There are no photographs in the book, which was shocking since its a travel book. But Thubron makes up for the lack of images with his artistic and lyrical writing that fuels your imagination. My favorite part of the book was history lessons that accompanied the places he travelled. This is a book to be savored across multiple days. There is so much information packed here. I loved Thubron's writing style so I bought his newest, Amur river: Between Russia and China.
The Silk route has always intrigued me. It is one of the most ancient trade route which not only carried goods across the continent but is also responsible for the exchange of ideas, religions and inventions. The Silk route is not one single road but a network of arteries splitting and converging across Asia. This network enriched everything it passed thru. According to Thubron, no single person travelled from China to Turkey but silk was part of ancient Mediterranean life and Greek and Roman images were found in ancient China. Such was the reach of the road.
Throughout the journey, Thubron intermingles with locals to understand their way of living, thoughts, religious and political views. He discovers the curiosity and eagerness of the young and the ruminations of the old. The antiquity of the ruins Thubron visits echoes the time gone by. There are no photographs in the book, which was shocking since its a travel book. But Thubron makes up for the lack of images with his artistic and lyrical writing that fuels your imagination. My favorite part of the book was history lessons that accompanied the places he travelled. This is a book to be savored across multiple days. There is so much information packed here. I loved Thubron's writing style so I bought his newest, Amur river: Between Russia and China.