Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road

Bernard Ollivier

oct. 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Lu par Nigel Patterson

À propos de ce livre audio

Upon retirement at the age of sixty-two, and grieving his deceased wife, renowned journalist Bernard Ollivier felt a sense of profound emptiness: What do I do now? While some see retirement as a chance to cash in their chips and settle into a comfy armchair, Ollivier still longed for more. Searching for inspiration, he strapped on his gear, donned his hat, and headed out the front door to hike the Way of St. James, a 1400-mile journey from Paris to Compostela, Spain. At the end of that road, with more questions than answers, he decided to spend the next few years hiking another of history's great routes: the Silk Road. Out of Istanbul is Ollivier's stunning account of the first part of that 7,200-mile journey. The longest and perhaps most mythical trade route of all time, the Silk Road is in fact a network of routes across Europe and Asia, some going back to prehistoric times. During the Middle Ages, the transcribed travelogue of one Silk Road explorer, Marco Polo, helped spread the fame of the Orient throughout Europe. Ollivier's journey, far from bragging about some tremendous achievement, humbly takes the listener on a colossal adventure of human proportions, one in which walking itself, through a kind of alchemy, fosters friendships and fellowship.

À propos de l'auteur

Career journalist turned traveler, Bernard Ollivier believes that walking has the power to transform. His publications include Out of Istanbul, Walking to Samarkand, numerous travel guides, both adult and young adult novels, and Life Begins at Sixty. He lives in Normandy, France.

British audiobook narrator and AudioFile Earphones Award winner Nigel Patterson has many credits as a stage, screen, and voice-over actor that influence his powerful characterization across a broad range of genres. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he is fluent in French and Spanish.

Dan Golembeski has worked as a French and Linguistics educator, a summer study abroad director in France, and has conducted fieldwork on language contact in Canada. He lives in Petoskey, Michigan.