Shadow of the Silk Road [Paperback]

To travel the Silk Road, the greatest land route on earth, is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions, and inventions. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months—out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey—and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.

Moving in a way thats rare in travel literature...Thubron goes to places most other sojourners cant.[Thubron is] intrepid, resourceful . . . and immensely talented . . . a splendid book.Thubron has done it all, with sparkling grace . . . He is a brilliant brooder, artful in his melancholy.An exhausting journey and a marvelous book.A fantastically descriptive writer, Thubron digs through the history of Central Asia...Perfect for vicarious travelers.An illuminating account of a breathtaking journey.[An] absorbing travel epic&Thubrons poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama.[Thubron] augments his trenchant narrative with impressive historical background and evocative, lyrical prose&An impressive, rewarding...trek.Splendid&Sumptuously detailed, elegantly written and riveting...Thubron misses nothing.