Author(s): Colin Thubron

Travel | China | Russia | History | Mongolia

A dramatic and ambitious new journey for our greatest travel writerColin Thubron, at 79, will travel the important but almost unknown Amur River - the tenth longest river in the world - that separates Russia from China in the Far East. The river rises in the mountains of north-east Mongolia (heartland of Genghis Khan) then flows into southern Siberia; after that, for over a thousand miles, it defines the Russo-Chinese border, before veering north into the Sea of Japan.The most tense and interesting part of the journey will be this 1,100-mile stretch at the river's heart, where the two great ex-Communist giants face each other. The Amur is a latent flashpoint between them, with the Chinese - to Russian alarm - pouring across the river to work on the Siberian side.This will be not only a journey from source to mouth along the banks of a magnificent waterway but an encounter with the local people. Colin speaks colloquial Russian, and is reviving the Mandarin he spoke thirty years ago. Travelling by whatever public transport he can find and sleeping where he can, Colin will draw out local stories in his inimitable style.

Review:

A miraculous late-style masterpiece, the equal of any of [Thubron's] earlier works, which will cement his reputation as one of our greatest prose writers in any genre... The Amur River is not just a literary triumph in itself, it is also a demonstration of the continued power of great travel writing -- William Dalrymple * Daily Telegraph *
A fascinating read packed with curiosities and incident * The Times *
Thubron's journey makes for a gripping read...with fascinating political insight * Sunday Times *
Excellent... Thubron's observations are perceptive and lightly delivered * Literary Review *
[Thubron] summons both landscape and people with nuanced sensitivity... Here is a writer at the top of his game, one from whom those toiling on the lower slopes have much to learn * Spectator *

Author Biography: Colin Thubron is an acknowledged master of travel writing, and the winner of many prizes and awards. His first writing was about the Middle East - Damascus, Lebanon and Cyprus. In 1982 he travelled into the Soviet Union in an ancient Morris Marina, pursued by the KGB, a journey he recorded in Among the Russians. From these early experiences developed his classic travel books- Behind the Wall (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award), The Lost Heart of Asia, In Siberia (Prix Bouvier) and Shadow of the Silk Road. His most recent book is To a Mountain in Tibet (all available in Vintage). Colin Thubron was President of the Royal Society of Literature from 2010 to 2017