Shadow of the Silk Road By Colin Thubron
Publisher: Har.,.per Peren..nial 2008 | 400 Pages | ISBN: 0061231770 | EPUB | 2 MB

In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron (In Siberia; 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, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The author travels third-class all the way, in crowded, stifling railroad cars and rattle-trap buses and cars, staying at crummy inns or farmers' houses, subject to shakedowns by border guards and constant harassment-even quarantine-by health officials hunting the SARS virus. Physically, these often monotonously arid, hilly regions of Central Asia tend to go by in a swirl of dun-colored landscapes studded with Buddha shrines in varying states of repair or ruin, but Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama.