Colin Thubron's last major oeuvre was In Siberia - highly acclaimed non-fiction about one of the bleakest places on earth. Everyone wondered where he'd go next - both literally and in literary terms. To The Last City is our answer.
In this frightening novel Thubron brings fictional characters to the furthest flung Inca ruins to be found along a precipitous trail amid 'cloud forests', which he has himself taken. The travel writing side is therefore all a Thubron reader would expect - flawless - but enriched in this book by the addition of new points of view. Each of his characters sees their journey and surroundings in their own way. A fat Belgian architect indulging the whim of his doll-like wife in embarking on this 'holiday', sees the mountains as mere 'geology'(an opinion degenerating to rocks viewed as 'turds' as the party's journey becomes distinctly troubling.) Whereas an English journalist longing to do some honest writing, craves to 'possess' the magnificence around him with words. A frail Spanish Deacon, carrying in his baggage all the guilt of a Conquistador's ancestor, seeks to apologise for the savage genocide of his forebears.And for the first time, Thubron speaks through the voice of a woman - Camilla, the journalist's forty-something wife who is at a pivotal stage in her own life. Thubron's lens on the landscape zooms in and out through these different eyes, with their individual self-consciousness convincingly in place, and his own narrative - lyrical and brutal as required - drives the reader steadily forward through the 'devouring and devoured' jungle, and through history.
(from Amazon.co.uk)

A very evocative novel by Colin Thubron. He certainly has a way with words and manages to create such a tense atmosphere at times that you feel you are one of the travellers as well.He also captures the beauty of the Peruvian mountains and sets it against the pain and quarreling in the group who are all Europeans struggling with the Inca mentality and history while trying to cope with their own problems. I loved Colin Thubron's In Siberia and I am deeply impressed with this novel too.

Going into cfreckle's random book box

Taken out of Cfreckle's Random Book Box, as my TBR pile is massive it may be a while until I can get to this.

I've not read anything else by this author so I have nothing to compare it to. As a novel it was too slow for me but I love the atmosphere and descriptions of the landscape were stunning. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the book more than the story of the characters.

Going into the Mixed Fiction Bookbox.

Looks interesting

Very atmospheric.

For the Snap challenge.