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Nonfiction Books » Travel

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron
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The Road to Oxiana

by Robert Byron

Recommendations from our site

“Oxiana is a coinage of his, and it doesn’t geographically specifically exist. It was a way of saying Persia (as it was to him) and Afghanistan. Byron’s journey starts in Venice and ends in what is now Pakistan. He went there in 1933-34, not long before he died in World War II, drowned when his ship was torpedoed. Although the book is terrifically chauvinistic – he’s appalling when he writes about the local people, almost always without sympathy and sometimes with extreme colonial arrogance – it’s full of wonderful descriptions.” Read more...

The Best Travel Writing

Colin Thubron, Travel Writer

“Byron was Chatwin’s first conscious model. The book is a candid account of a journey made in 1933 in search of Seljuk tombs.” Read more...

Bruce Chatwin: Books that Influenced Him

Nicholas Shakespeare, Biographer

“One of the classic books about travelling in Afghanistan. It’s fun to travel with Byron and hear what he has to say, although he is quite a snob.” Read more...

The Best Books by Foreigners on Afghanistan

Sandy Gall, Foreign Correspondent

Our most recommended books

  • As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
    by Laurie Lee

  • The Road to Oxiana
    by Robert Byron

  • Raag Darbari
    by Shrilal Shukla (translated by Gillian Wright)

  • Arctic Dreams
    by Barry Lopez

  • The Argumentative Indian
    by Amartya Sen

  • The Travels of Ibn Battutah
    by Ibn Battutah (edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith)

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