Description

In an Antique Land is a subversive history in the guise of a traveller’s tale. When the author stumbles across a slave narrative in the margins of an ancient text, his curiosity is piqued. What follows is a ten year search, which brings author and slave together across 800 hundred years of colonial history. Bursting with anecdote and exuberant detail, it offers a magical, intimate biography of the private life of a country, Egypt, from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm.

Publisher Review

Ghosh's book is extraordinary; a travel book that reaches back into the twelth century as it touches on the dilemmas of our own time. * Sunday Times * Ghosh is an engagingly humble and receptive traveller... a refreshing reversal of the usual power relationship between the observing (European) travel writer and his indigenous subjects. * Guardian * A rich and satisfying journey * The Times * This captivating, extraordinary story offers the general reader a vision of a rapidly disappearing world told with such grace, humility and insight that its appeal is universal -- Julie Fisher * Bookmunch *