Our October Book of the Month is The Amur River by Colin Thubron £20.00
The first travel book in a decade from Colin Thubron, the 2019 recipient of the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.
In his 80th year, Thubron made an ambitious journey along the 3000-mile river that divides China and Russia.
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.
The Amur River charts Thubron’s journey from the river’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.
“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
The Amur River by Colin Thubron is available for £20.00
Watch Colin Thubron introduce The Amur River: