Colin Thubron Libri

È solo da pochi anni che per la prima volta i viaggiatori stranieri possono muoversi all’interno della Siberia senza troppi problemi. Risalendo il grande fiume Enisej fino all’Artico, attraverso le montagne che increspano la Mongolia, e poi a est verso il fiume Amur, il Pacifico e il gulag abbandonato nella Kolyma, Colin Thubron ha viaggiato sulla Transiberiana, ha navigato i fiumi, ha preso autobus e camion di passaggio, muovendosi tra i popoli che più hanno risentito del collasso del comunismo e della frantumazione dell’Unione Sovietica. Sul suo percorso ha incontrato buddisti e animisti, sette cristiane, comunisti reazionari e quello che rimane di un fumoso progetto di Stato ebraico in Asia; è stato nel luogo dove hanno assassinato l’ultimo zar, al villaggio di Rasputin, nelle tombe degli antichi sciti preservate dal ghiaccio e sulle rive del Bajkal, il lago più profondo e antico del mondo, percorrendo qualcosa come 24.000 chilometri attraverso la regione terrestre più selvaggia e più crudamente violentata dall’uomo. Vivido e appassionato, ma anche pervaso di una sottile vena di umorismo, il racconto del viaggio di Thubron è anche e soprattutto l’incontro con un popolo che, uscito a pezzi dalle rovine del comunismo, è entrato in una dimensione privata dalle forme più diverse, spesso incredibilmente strane.

'Thubron on top form. Richly detailed, immaculately written and full of insights and encounters that bring a complex corner of the world to life' Michael Palin A dramatic and ambitious new journey for our greatest travel writer The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the tenth longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Haunted by the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on earth. In his eightieth year, Colin Thubron takes a dramatic journey from the Amur's secret source to its giant mouth, covering almost 3,000 miles. Harassed by injury and by arrest from the local police, he makes his way along both the Russian and Chinese shores, starting out by Mongolian horse, then hitchhiking, sailing on poacher's sloops or travelling the Trans-Siberian Express. Having revived his Russian and Mandarin, he talks to everyone he meets, from Chinese traders to Russian fishermen, from monks to indigenous peoples. By the time he reaches the river's desolate end, where Russia's nineteenth-century imperial dream petered out, a whole, pivotal world has come alive. The Amur River is a shining masterpiece by the acknowledged laureate of travel writing, an urgent lesson in history and the culmination of an astonishing career.

Having learned Mandarin, and travelling alone by foot, bicycle and train, Colin Thubron set off on a 10,000 mile journey from Beijing to the borders of Burma.

Set in AD 312, the narrative follows Emperor Constantine as he leads a formidable army across the Alps to reclaim Rome from the tyrant Maxentius. Amidst his military campaign, Constantine grapples with spiritual uncertainties and personal turmoil, particularly regarding his wife's emotional distance. Despite these challenges and ominous signs, he achieves a significant victory at Verona, propelling him forward in his quest for power.

An acclaimed travel writer and novelist, in his eightieth year, takes a dramatic journey on the little-known Far East Asian river that forms the highly contested border between Russia and China, covering almost 3,000 miles

A journey to the heart of and ancient city.An extract from 'The Lost Heart of Asia'.

Among the Russians is a marvellous account of a solitary journey by car from St. Petersburg and the Baltic States south to Georgia and Armenia. A gifted writer and intrepid traveller, Thubron grapples with the complexities of Russian identity and relays his extraordinary journey in characteristically lyrical style.

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHORDescribed by the author as simply 'a work of love', Mirror to Damascus provides a rich and fascinating history of Damascus from the Amorites of the Bible to the revolution of 1966, and is also a charming and witty personal record of an extraordinary city.

Having learned Mandarin, and travelling alone by foot, bicycle and train, Colin Thubron sets off on a 10,000 mile journey from Beijing to Tibet, starting from a tropical paradise near the Burmese border to the windswept wastes of the Gobi desert and the far end of the Great Wall. What Thubron reveals is an astonishing diversity, a land whose still unmeasured resources strain to meet an awesome demand, and an ancient people still reeling from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution.

When a part-time worker in a mental hospital meets his old girlfriend inside he is not sure at first is she is a patient. Their reunion is haunted and haunting, and from the memory of their past affair there unfolds a labyrinth which darkens from romantic obsession to feelings deeper and more disturbing.