The Amur River

"Elegant, elegiac and poignant...Thubron is an intrepid traveler, a shrewd observer and a lyrical guide... to the river, much of it along the border between these two powers at a time of rapid and tense reconfiguration of global geopolitics." -- Washington Post

"When a river runs through a good book, a current of expectations irresistibly carries readers along...On this subarctic odyssey, each bend of the Amur brings new sights, new characters, and new revelations... For over a thousand miles, the Amur marks the boundary between two nations, and it is there, crisscrossing the border, that Thubron sees the contrast between an empire in decline and one on the rise." -- Natural History Magazine

"A breathtaking account of the beauty and harshness of the 1,100-mile-long Amur River that forms the border between Russia and China. . . . Thubron documents the interplay of politics and history, contrasting the "subdued fatalism" of Russians living in the river basin with the bustling optimism of the Chinese, whose glitzy restaurants and markets mask signs of discontent. . . . A top-notch travelogue." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Enthralling... A captivating portrait of a remote region of the world... evoking with beautiful detail and compassion its rich history and culture." -- Kirkus (Starred Review)

"The Amur River shows Thubron to be at the peak of his powers... as one of our greatest prose writers in any genre. But The Amur River is not just beautifully written: it is also a work of great importance...Thubron uses the Amur River as a metaphor to deal with the relationship of two countries now regarded by many as the greatest threat to the West in these dying days of the U.S. Imperium." -- Daily Telegraph

"A gripping read with fascinating political insight." -- Sunday Times (London)

"A journey from a sacred Mongolian source down a river that is also a fault line of history, where empires divide and rivalries begin...The most eloquent travel writer in Britain...found a psychic salve in the Amur, whose rugged beauty enchants him even as its history fills him with dread." -- Wall Street Journal

"A mesmerizing trip down Far East Asia's most consequential river reveals the twists and turns of history and politics...It is the troubling tension between Russia and China that lies at the heart of Thubron's book...A poignant contribution to Thubron's acclaimed career, with his trademark lyricism elevating nature to a central breathing character that often reflects the ambivalence of its human counterparts." -- BookBrowse.com

"An extraordinary journey...People are characterized with great sympathy...Thubron writes brilliantly about the region's wildlife and folklore...Moments of humour leaven the atmosphere...One can only marvel that Thubron completed his journey and be thankful that this marvelous book came out of it." -- Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Unlike such peers as the Mississippi and the Nile, the Amur is a source of division, with anxiety and distrust seething on both banks....Veteran travel writer Colin Thubron weaves in historical anecdotes, such as the freedom Chekhov felt while sailing down the river to interview convicts in Sakhalin, and his stopover with a Japanese prostitute in Blagoveschensk." -- The New Yorker