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Shadow of the Silk Road Paperback – International Edition, October 23, 2007

by Colin Thubron (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 590 ratings
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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.


From the Hardcover edition.
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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage Books
  4. Publication date
    October 23, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.07 x 0.95 x 7.78 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0099437228
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099437222
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
590 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book's writing style beautiful and vivid. They find the content interesting and educational, with a rich history and cultural context. The book is described as a spectacular, palatable read that provides an interesting account of travel through modern Asia. Readers appreciate the visual style and colorful illustrations that depict the social and cultural milieu.

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Writing qualityInformation qualityReadabilityHistoryTravel valueVisual styleCultureMap clarity
32 customers mention "Writing quality"28 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the book's writing. They praise the beautiful prose and vivid descriptions of places and people. The writing style is captivating, with a stream-of-consciousness tone.

"Fabulous. The writing is visual and excellent, the individual vignettes are touching, the research is invigorating...." Read more

"Colin Thubron's beautiful prose details his journey through modern Asia along the ancient Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean...." Read more

"...Traveling areas that are so foreign to most of us, he describes with great detail the people and the history of the places along the way...." Read more

"...Thubron has created a literary landscape that makes my sedentary journey as colorful and captivating as my travels in 1993...." Read more

28 customers mention "Information quality"28 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's content interesting and educational. They appreciate the history of the area and the well-researched account of the author's travels along the Silk Road. The vignettes are touching and the research is invigorating. Readers describe the book as both a personal memoir and a tour guide, with insightful analysis and factual details that enliven the account of his travels.

"...I'm thrilled that I found this travel piece, as much a personal memoir as a tour guide...." Read more

"...and ethnic strife that resonates for us today. The author knows this history, the people and the strife along the Silk Road’s long troubled..." Read more

"I am an art museum docent and found this book to be a good source for background material in interpreting the Chinese artifacts related to the time..." Read more

"...I found myself caught somewhere between being captivated by his perceptive observations, which were seldom judgemental yet always intensely personal..." Read more

25 customers mention "Readability"25 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They find the content informative and say it's a great resource for anyone traveling in Western China. The book is described as a real page-turner and an ideal armchair travel guide, with interesting insights into Chinese culture.

"Fabulous. The writing is visual and excellent, the individual vignettes are touching, the research is invigorating...." Read more

"...Thubron's account of the Silk Road is a literary treasure...." Read more

"...I also recommend this beautifully illustrated and very readable history: [..." Read more

"I loved this book. It felt as if I were traveling along with the author, seeing all the sights and sounds of a world I had little knowledge of...." Read more

14 customers mention "History"14 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's history. They find it fascinating and well-written, with a vivid reenactment of the past. The author skillfully weaves together historical background and present experiences to bring his story to life.

"...But, we also have before us a story full of a rich history, lost empires, vanished people set in an area full of religious and ethnic strife that..." Read more

"...literary landscape that makes my sedentary journey as colorful and captivating as my travels in 1993...." Read more

"...of his story -- but I also enjoyed very much his skillful weaving of historic background alongside his bumping on buses, his climbing up cliff faces..." Read more

""Shadow of the Silk Road", by Colin Thubron, delivers a wonderful tale of his adventures along the Silk Road as it exists today...." Read more

10 customers mention "Travel value"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and engaging. It provides an interesting account of travel through a region that the author has studied and travelled in for decades. Readers feel as if they are traveling along with the author, seeing all the sights and sounds. The author travels alone, which is important for good travel writing.

"...Importantly, Thubron travels alone - a necessity for good travel writing because those who travel in groups inevitably turn to commentary on their..." Read more

"I loved this book. It felt as if I were traveling along with the author, seeing all the sights and sounds of a world I had little knowledge of...." Read more

"Shadow of the Silk Road is part travelog, part ancient, modern, and contemporary history. I found it both interesting and informative...." Read more

"...I love history and travel. This was the best travel book I have read. I would love to do that trip but I know I don't have the guts to do it...." Read more

5 customers mention "Visual style"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the visual style of the book. They find it visually appealing and readable, with beautiful illustrations. The author is described as elegant and colorful, making the journey engaging even without traveling.

"...Thubron is, in my opinion, the most elegant living travel writer in the English language...." Read more

"...has created a literary landscape that makes my sedentary journey as colorful and captivating as my travels in 1993...." Read more

"...I also recommend this beautifully illustrated and very readable history: [..." Read more

"...An urbane and gentle look at a place most of us will never see." Read more

3 customers mention "Culture"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the cultural aspects of the book. They mention that Thubron meets real people along the way and discusses the past and present.

"...Thubron meets real people, talks about the past and also about the present, sometimes painful, of their vanishing way of life." Read more

"...say the experiences and stories related give the reader a very good sense of the social, cultural mileau...." Read more

"...The perfect armchair travellers book, meeting differlent locals along the way, some fascinating history, and vivid word pictures...." Read more

4 customers mention "Map clarity"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the maps in the book unclear and inaccurate.

"...The only 2 quibbles I have with the book is that the maps could have been clearer and a bibliography would have been helpful...." Read more

"...The weakness of the book is the maps. They are not always accurate: ie. Pakistan's border with China has been replaced with Afghanistan." Read more

"...My only regret is not having a hard cover copy the maps in the book are impossibe to see clearly in the Kindle edition, even with my lighted..." Read more

"...In my humble opinion, the book is marred by very poor maps -- this may be due to my reading the book on a Kindle, which did not allow the maps to..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Read
    Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Fabulous. The writing is visual and excellent, the individual vignettes are touching, the research is invigorating. I'm thrilled that I found this travel piece, as much a personal memoir as a tour guide. There's no way I could make this journey myself, so I'm grateful to be carried along on his return trip. I especially appreciate his humane thoughts on the lasting impact of the Red Guards, the black heart of China that stripped so many lives. I've already ordered his book on Tibet.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • USAF Veteran
    4.0 out of 5 stars Elegant prose recounts modern journey along ancient silk road
    Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Colin Thubron's beautiful prose details his journey through modern Asia along the ancient Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean. He passes through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and describes the history, cultures and people along the way.

    Thubron is, in my opinion, the most elegant living travel writer in the English language. His previous books include several like (The Lost Heart of Asia), that overlap this same area recounting travels in this area over the last 30 years.

    The Silk Road is the trading corridor that went from China to the Mediterranean. Silk was one of the main products traded and gave its name to this road system. Other accounts include Marco Polo (highly recommended before reading this book), the Muslim traveller Ibn BattutaThe Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, Robert Byron's travels The Road to Oxiana and several others whose accounts I found less penetrating.

    Importantly, Thubron travels alone - a necessity for good travel writing because those who travel in groups inevitably turn to commentary on their pathetic companions rather than the country through which they are travelling. These accounts like "A Walk in the Woods" A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail) can be entertaining but they usually aren't very insightful. So if you're looking for humor, this book is not what you are looking for.

    Thubron speaks some Chinese and Russian and must have an encyclopedic knowledge of the ancient and modern history of Central Asia. One of the great strengths of the book is that the author has studied and travelled in this region for decades.

    He starts with Western China. The Chinese people that Thubron meets with would rather forget the recent past dominated by the world's greatest mass murderer, Mao. However, Mao's legacy lives on in the strict military control of the country. China is the poster-child for environmental pillage by third world countries seeking industrialization. You can't help but be depressed. The ruined civilizations buried by desert in Western China should give sufficient pause to the Communist Chinese but there is no sign of moderation. Thubron brushes by the northern reaches of Tibet enough to note that Tibet is in its dying stages as Communist suppression and Chinese immigration wipe out the cultural remnants.

    Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are more fascinating to me because the government is less oppressive and the area is less well-known to me. The history of these countries goes back thousands of years rather than hundreds. The ruined cities still have life near them in modern slap-dash cities that have sprung up since the ancient cities were destroyed by various conquerors - mostly Mongols.

    Afghanistan seems to be one of the most hopeful areas of the journey even though Thubron is there soon after the Taliban is defeated. Iran reminds me of China in that the populace is not really interested in politics and would rather not be subject to ego-maniacal dictators. The last few countries like Iran, Syria and Turkey are not covered in the same depth probably because the author isn't as fluent in Turkish, Arabic and Farsi.

    One underlying theme is the distrust of the West seen throughout his journey. Western culture has triumphed completely, but unfortunately all the culture is the worst culture. Pop culture, pornography, sexual license, drugs and materialism are rampant but the more important political foundations of the West - liberty, individualism, Christianity, and constitutional government - are nowhere to be found. If you have ever spent time in a 3rd world country listening to the myths and nonsense that is fervently believed by the native population, you won't be surprised to find that Thubron finds the same. Depressingly, there seems to be very little chance of East understanding West in the near future if the comments of the people Thubron visits are representative.

    The only 2 quibbles I have with the book is that the maps could have been clearer and a bibliography would have been helpful.

    So 4 stars for the best travel book I've read this year.
    72 people found this helpful
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  • studebhawk
    5.0 out of 5 stars Along the Silk Road
    Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Along the Road of History, War and Sorrow
    Colin Thubron takes us on a journey of discovery across the ancient Silk Road. Traveling areas that are so foreign to most of us, he describes with great detail the people and the history of the places along the way.This story appeals on so many levels. For those of us interested in history, archeology or religion, the author leaves something for us on every plate.
    The importance of the Silk Road in the history of commerce between East and West down through the ages is beautifully described here.But, we also have before us a story full of a rich history, lost empires, vanished people set in an area full of religious and ethnic strife that resonates for us today.
    The author knows this history, the people and the strife along the Silk Road’s long troubled past. The author takes us along for the journey and we are enriched for it.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • jerry
    3.0 out of 5 stars excellent information; presentation of small, dense type makes reading difficult.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I am an art museum docent and found this book to be a good source for background material in interpreting the Chinese artifacts related to the time period of Silk Road activity.
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  • Tony
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Blood Stained Road
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Once again, I travel the Silk Road but this time as an armchair traveler. Thubron has created a literary landscape that makes my sedentary journey as colorful and captivating as my travels in 1993.

    Thubron's account of the Silk Road is a literary treasure. Throughout his narrative I found myself caught somewhere between being captivated by his perceptive observations, which were seldom judgemental yet always intensely personal and enthralled by his pictorial prose, laden with metaphor and similie.

    What makes Thubron's book different from other travel writings is the mystery that is conveyed. Other writers describe what can be seen, Thubron gives us a picture of what no longer exists; the unseen. So much of the Silk Road lays in ruins or lies buried. So many obscure civilizations were brutally leveled with few, if any remnants remaining. Thubron resurrects the conquerers who obliterated the once bustling metropolises: Qin Shi, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, and Hasan-i-Sabah. He makes them accountable, not for what remains but what they destroyed and took away. Then he explores what might have been with the rationale of an historian and geographer. The Silk Road transcends from a geographical route and is vividly portrayed as a sequence of historical occurrences that stretch for centuries across a continent.

    The weakness of the book is the maps. They are not always accurate: ie. Pakistan's border with China has been replaced with Afghanistan.
    14 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Fernando
    5.0 out of 5 stars Um livro para ler na hora do lazer, excelente.
    Reviewed in Brazil on July 1, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    O livro é muito bem escrito pelo ingles Colin Thubron. è uma mistura de turismo, história e cultura. Fascinante a sua jornada pela antiga rota da seda que começa na China. Um livro diferente e muito fácil de ler.
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  • dr d.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Colin thubron' s masterpiece book on silk road
    Reviewed in India on September 4, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    A very well researched book by colin thubron.wish the paper quality was better its already brownish like an old book but i guess they have used recycled paper good for the environment.
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  • Tim Johnson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Australia on March 2, 2018
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    already posted
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  • Rose Anne van der Heiden
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing report of what sounds like an amazing place
    Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    While I have never been to this region where the Silk Road used to be, it sure makes me want to go there. Although, some parts are described as dangerous, and I would rather skip that... The author is able to describe the places in a lot of detail, without turning me off. Usually books that stick to detail bore me quickly, as I would like to get on with the story. This book is easy to pick up and read for a few minutes before bed or for a few hours on a rainy day.
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  • Francesco Crisafulli
    3.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo libro
    Reviewed in Italy on August 30, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Piacevole lettura, non priva di tratti ironici o umoristici, di spunti di riflessione geopolitica e di qualche momento di "suspense". Un libro da leggere senza dubbio, insieme con "la via per l'Oxiana" di R. Byron, per chiunque intraprenda un viaggio verso la Cina, attraverso l'Asia centrale e orientale (o lo abbia appena compiuto). Forse, l'estro letterario dell'autore (del resto efficacissimo) sacrifica un poco la comprensione per chi non abbia già una buona conoscenza della geo-storia di quelle contrade...
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