Life Along Silk Road Review

Life along The Silk Road

by Susan Whitfield

Author of the book, Susan Whitfield runs the International Dunhuang Project at the British Library, providing Internet access to over 50,000 pre-eleventh century Silk Road manuscripts now in collections worldwide. She has written several books and articles on China, including China: A Literary Companion.

The Author has done extensive research on the Mongolian Empire and middle kingdom; she was travelled to central Asia several times and has written this novel as she reflects on the stories of The Silk Road. She dedicated the book to Prof. Edward Schafer, whom she credits for literary excavation of this historic trade route.

The book recounts the stories, the lives of ten individuals who lived along The Silk Road in different era. This novel tells tale of a merchant, a soldier, a horseman, a monk, a nun among others, all from a different walk of life. The author reconstructs the history of the route through the personal experiences of these characters.

First chapter of the book the author provides reader with background information, she takes reader back in 2nd century, to help the reason and understand what events took place, for which during the mid 8th century when the overland silk route was at its peak, trades of silk, ivory, gold, and spices flourished under the Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. She explains the great movement of people across central Asia and from central Asia to Europe. The Aryans had already moved into India by 1500 B.C.E, and even further east within the next 500 years. The movement continued into 1st century C.E with the Huns led by Attila moving into Europe in 5th century C.E.

Following the introduction chapter, the authors begins to tell the tale of ten individuals, but despite this initial drive to keep the cultural aspects of different societies along the Silk Road separate from each other , her characters show the inevitability of an exchange of ideas along with the physical trade...