Colin Thubron Ordine dei libri (cronologico)

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

The mountain path is the road of the dead,� writes Thubron (Shadow of the Silk Road) in this engrossing and affecting travel memoir that transcends the mere physical journey. In the wake of his mother's death, Thubron sets off to Mount Kailas in Tibet, a peak sacred to one-fifth of the world's population and the source of four of India's great rivers. Kailas has never been climbed: the slopes are important to Tibetan Buddhists who say the mountain's guardian is Demchog (a tantric variant of Shiva). Along with two guides, Thubron embarks on a pilgrimage that begins in Nepal and crosses into Tibet, recounting not only his arduous journey but also the political and cultural history of Tibet and the West's continued fascination with its mysticism. Along the way, he observes pilgrims of various religions converging on Kailas and the myriad monasteries, most of which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt decades later. It is the poignant evocations of his mother and sister (who died at 21), interwoven with his profound respect for the Tibetan culture and landscape that make Thubron's memoir an utterly moving read. - Publisher's Weekly

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.

Colin Thurbon’s beautiful prose unfolds along the Silk Road, unearthing a richly layered past on his most ambitious journey. On buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. A magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment, Thubron covers over 7000 miles in eight months enduring a near-miss with a drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell, and undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic, along the way. VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

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.

Edward Sanders, ein junger Astronom, hat zwei Jahre seines Lebens verloren, seine Erinnerung durch ein Trauma ausgelöscht. In den Tagen nach seinem Erwachen tritt eine Erinnerung immer wieder in den Vordergrund: seine tiefe, dringende Liebe zu einer Frau, deren Namen er nicht kennt. Doch während das flüchtige Bild klarer wird, wird auch das schreckliche Ereignis deutlich, das Edward in seinen persönlichen Abgrund stürzte.

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

La regione geografica descritta è l'Asia centrale e l'autore resta rigorosamente all'interno dei confini di quella che era la vecchia Urss, perché si tratta di una terra dimenticata, rare volte meta di viaggi turistici. Thubron segue la Via della seta: la magica Bukhara, uno sguardo al lago di Aral; il mito di Samarcanda e poi ancora più a est, nel remoto Pamir, per un'ascesa mistica alle montagne del paradiso terrestre della Bibbia.

Journalist Mark Swabey is serving a prison sentence in connection with the death of Clara the Swallow, a circus acrobat with whom he fell in love. As the grief-stricken Swabey looks back on their affair, the exact nature of his responsibility for Clara’s death is movingly revealed.

Much of the romance of the past centres around travel and the trade routes of the world. For hundreds of years people have crossed mountains and deserts, sailed down rivers and across seas in pursuit of conquest, trade or adventure. In this book seven travellers, well-known in different spheres, make seven journeys, recording their experiences and describing the places and the people they encounter. Colin Thubron follows the Silk road beyond the Great Wall of China to the borders of Afghanistan. Whilst Naomi James visits several of the islands which were settled by Polynesians many centuries ago. Crossing the border between the USA and Mexico, Hugo Williams goes from the First to the Third World along the Pan American Highway and through Central America by river. Miles Kington travels the Burma Road, once used by Marco Polo and later a life-line for the allies in World War II. The route taken by the Vikings between the Baltic and the Black Sea was the one followed by Noram Stone. Starting in Leningrad, he travels through Estonia and Lithuania to Kiev and then on to Yalta. And William Shawcross journeys along the old Salt road once used by traders to carry salt from the mines in the Sahara desert. Finally, in Vietnam, Phillip Jones Griffiths returns to the country where he spent nearly three years during the war.

For four months and five hundred miles Colin Thubron walked the mountains of Lebanon, following tracks and rivers. His journey was not only a survey of a remarkable country, but a quest for the gods and divinities who held the secrets of death and rebirth in the land's ancient cults.

Un territorio a lungo considerato oscuro e inquietante, con un passato ricco di contraddizioni: Colin Thubron, primo tra gli scrittori di viaggio occidentali, ha esplorato questo vasto paese alla vigilia dei tumulti di Tian’anmen, percorrendo quindicimila chilometri senza un itinerario preciso e dialogando con la gente comune. Ha assorbito la quiete desolata di Pechino e la vitalità brutale di Shanghai, riscoprendo a Suzhou la bellezza della Cina antica. Attraversando regioni remote e poco turistiche, dal fiume Mekong alle pendici dell’Himalaya, fino all’estremità nordoccidentale della Grande Muraglia, Thubron ha inizialmente avvertito l’impenetrabilità dei cinesi, la loro «immagine pubblica di arida inespressività». Tuttavia, grazie alla sua umanità e empatia, è riuscito a rivelarne l’essenza attraverso incontri memorabili: un’ex guardia rossa colpita dalla violenza del suo passato, giovani donne attratte da un futuro indipendente, monaci di santuari dimenticati, una ballerina costretta a badare ai maiali, contadini poveri ma ospitali, e professori con una mentalità in estinzione. Questo libro è ormai considerato un classico della letteratura di viaggio, con una scrittura lirica che restituisce una Cina lontana dagli stereotipi, catturando l’atmosfera malinconica e fiduciosa di un popolo in cerca di un cambiamento epocale.

It was an unique journey - a 600 mile trek on foot around Cyprus, in the last year of the island's peace. Colin Thubron writes about it and with great immediacy, intertwining myth, history and personal anecdote. What emerges is a tapestry from which characters and places, architectures and landscape all spring vividly to life. As a guide to the island and its survival through centuries of turmoil, JOURNEY INTO CYPRUS is invaluable. As a fine narrative of travel, it is compelling. "Thubron worked hard to know Cyprus. He is a sympathetic observer, but also a candid one. He never lets sentiment or expectation get in the way of truth." (Daily Telegraph)

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.

Ein Text-Bild-Band über die abenteuerliche Geschichte des Walfangs biszu Beginn des 20. Jh.

This volume in The Seafarers series surveys the various seafarers of the ancient world, including Greece and Rome, their ships, trade, and battles at sea.

Dieser Band der Seefahrer-Serie behandelt die Geschichte, Entwicklung und sozialen Merkmale der Venezianer und beschreibt ihre Rüstungen, Schiffe und einige der Schlachten, an denen sie beteiligt waren.

This volume in The Seafarers series discusses the history, development, and social characteristics of the Venetians and describes their armor, ships, and some of the battles in which they engaged.

Jerusalem is a city sacred to three faiths: Moslem, Jew and Christian. No other city has been fought over with such religious ferocity and anguish; no other city has inspired such love and devotion through the centuries. Colin Thubron, author of Among the Russians and Mirror to Damascus, wrote his personal tribute to Jerusalem in 1969. It is an evocation of the sights, sounds, unique atmosphere and character of the Jerusalem of recent years, set against the backdrop of cultural, religious and historical influences of the past.