The Amur River

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The most admired travel writer of our time—author of Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet—recounts an eye-opening, often perilous journey along a little known Far East Asian river that for over a thousand miles forms the highly contested border between Russia and China. The Amur River, the tenth longest in the world, speaks to Colin Thubron's desire to travel a remote but vital frontier land, from the river's headwaters in Mongolia to its end in the Pacific Ocean, and to experience the Russia-China confrontation on the ground. As he walks over the bones of the bloody Russian past, and pursues his close encounters with the full vigor of the Chinese present, he introduces readers to a series of idiosyncratic and all-too-human men and women who redefine for us what it means to be Russian or Chinese. With his gift for intimacy and command of both Russian and Mandarin, Thubron portrays the contrasting realities of Russia and China, which are startling and even ominous for the future. There is no other traveler or writer who knows his territory as deeply as Colin Thubron knows China, Russian Siberia, and this Asian land mass about which he has been writing for decades. The Amur is a river with so many names and faces, but Thubron describes it anew from each vantage point, just as he does the towns and human settlements along its shores. Not to mention the varied landscapes and wildlife. How he manages to reframe his view—and ours—of the same river and keep tight hold of our interest testifies to an immense talent. The Amur River is another masterwork from Colin Thubron, a brilliant and important book that brings to life an extraordinary journey.