Author:Mark Thomas
'Good fences make good neighbours, but what about bad ones?'
The Israeli separation barrier is probably the most iconic divider of land since the Berlin Wall. It has been declared illegal under international law and its impact on life in the West Bank has been enormous.
Mark Thomas - as only he could - decided the only way to really get to grips with this huge divide was to use the barrier as a route map, to 'walk the wall', covering the entire distance with little more in his armoury than Kendal Mint Cake and a box of blister plasters.
In the course of his ramble he was tear-gassed, stoned, sunburned, rained on and hailed on and even lost the wall a couple of times. But thankfully he was also welcomed and looked after by Israelis and Palestinians - from farmers and soldiers to smugglers and zookeepers - and finally earned a unique insight of the real Middle East in all its entrenched and yet life-affirming glory. And all without hardly ever getting arrested!
John Pilger with laughs
—— GuardianA terrific, funny read
—— ShortlistHorrifying and hilarious
—— Evening StandardLaurence Rees is currently producing the best documentaries ever made about the Nazi era
—— Clive JamesSeamless and skilful...it's clear why this is many a researcher's Titanic bible
—— Entertainment WeeklyEnthralling from the first word to the last
—— The Atlantic MonthlyMoving and extremely well-documented
—— Oxford MailBrilliant ... Mishra reverses the long gaze of the West upon the East, showing modern history as it has been felt by the majority of the world's population - from Turkey to China. These are the amazing stories of the grandfathers of today's angry Asians. Excellent
—— Orhan PamukJolts our historical imagination ... a book of vast and wondrous learning and delightful and surprising associations that will give a new meaning to liberation geography
—— Hamid Dabashi (Professor of Iranian Studies, Columbia University, New York)After Edward Said's masterpiece Orientalism, From the Ruins of Empire offers another bracing view of the history of the modern world. Pankaj Mishra [is] a brilliant author of wide learning ... skillful and captivating narration
—— Wang Hui (Professor of Chinese Intellectual History, Tsinghua University, Beijing)Pankaj Mishra has produced a riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections. He follows the intellectual trail of this contested history with both intelligence and moral clarity. In the end we realise that what we are holding in our hands is not only a deeply entertaining and deeply humane book, but a balance sheet of the nature and mentality of colonisation
—— Hisham MatarHighly readable and illuminating ... Mishra's analysis of Muslim reactions is particularly topical
—— David Goodall , TabletEnormously ambitious but thoroughly readable, this book is essential reading for everyone who is interested in the processes of change that have led to the emergence of today's Asia
—— Amitav Ghosh , Wall Street JournalSophisticated ... not so much polemic as cri de coeur, motivated by Mishra's keen sense of the world, East and West, hurtling towards its own destruction
—— Tehelka, New DelhiOutstanding ... Mishra wears his scholarship lightly and weaves together the many strands of history into a gripping narrative ... The insights afforded by this book are too many to be enumerated ... Mishra performs a signal service to the future - by making us read the past in a fresh light
—— The Hindu, New Delhi[Full of] complexity and nuance
—— Mail TodaySubtle, erudite and entertaining
—— Financial ExpressMishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia
—— Free Press JournalA vital, nuanced argument ... prodigious
—— Mint
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