SOURCE: Malcomson, Scott. “Game Park for Hominids.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4774 (30 September 1994): 26.

In the following review, Malcomson compliments the prose in The Lost Heart of Asia, but argues that Thubron does not have an adequate grasp of Central Asian history.

Colin Thubron is among the most exemplary of contemporary Western travel writers, and his new book, The Lost Heart of Asia, which relates his travels through the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, should further his already considerable reputation. He brings special gifts to the task, wielding an athletic and sprightly vocabulary (now I have “ondine,” “pelmet” and “bungaloid” in my word-bank). I'm not at all certain, however, that mare's milk can be “fomented” (though it is fermented) or that heads can be “shriven” to skulls, but the images conjured are entrancing. This semantic facility certainly makes what may have been dull moments more exciting—his...