“A fascinating journey.... a lone and absorbing quest for what stubbornly survives a holocaust – a people, a landscape, a language, a religious vision. It is an admirable book.”
A revised and updated edition of Philip Marsden’s classic travel book, published to coincide with the centenary of the Armenian massacres.
After centuries of prominence as a world power, Armenia has withstood every attempt during the 20th century to destroy it. With a name redolent both of dim antiquity and of a modern world and its tensions, the Armenians founded a civilization and underwent a diaspora that brought many of the great ideas of the East to Western Europe.
The Crossing Place is Philip Marsden’s gripping account of his remarkable journey through the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus in a quest to discover the secret of one of the world’s most extraordinary peoples.
Caught between opposing empires, between warring religions and ideologies – at the crossing place of history – the Armenians have somehow survived against the odds. This is their story – told by one of the finest travel writers at work today.
Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award
“One of the best young travel writers in search of the elusive, enigmatic Armenians … A wonderful journey recounted with knowledge, humour and a beautiful elegiac sadness.”
“An interest, then an obsession, then a quest – and eventually a book, ‘The Crossing Place’, in which Marsden’s fine and unostentatious travel writing is criss-crossed with traces of politics and cultural history … This is a beautifully written book, with enough incident and observation to convey the unpredictabilities of real travel.”
“Perfectly placed in mood and sympathy … A determined and passionate book.”
