by Peter Frankopan
Well, this is quite a tome.
My aunt Wendy gave me the paperback as a Christmas present a few years ago. It may have been one of her last book gifts to me, before she developed dementia. I have always valued Wendy’s book tips, so when I wanted to read this and couldn’t find it, I was somewhat distraught. I got the hardback out of the library, and also downloaded the audiobook. (I find this can be useful when reading a factual book which may contain ma-s and/or illustrations.)
The paperback turned up, and I continued listening, dipping into the book to look at the maps or to read out a passage I thought might interest my husband Martin.
Not sure when I downloaded this – it must have been about February 2023, I think. And now, in June, I’ve more or less finished it, in time to collect Frankopan’s latest epic volume, The Earth Transformed, from the library. Not sure that I’ll get through that one in the three weeks allotted. Maybe I will skim-read. But I digress.
The Silk Roads is, broadly, about international trade and commerce, and the colonisation, exploitation and skulduggery that goes with it. The well-known silk roads, trade routes across Eastern Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages, are only part of the story. The author shows how nations, with their commercial and political alliances, have interacted throughout the ages.
I have always loved to understand the connections in human experience and endeavour. Humans are endlessly ingenious – and we are also social beings, enjoying new experiences, meeting new people and telling stories. It may be that the stories are sometimes exaggerated (Martin likes to tell how Marco Polo, based on the stories he narrates and – more importantly – what he leaves out, may in fact never have travelled to China).
This book has been worth persevering with.
A rug and a book 