Red Nile: The Biography of the World's Greatest River

by Robert Twigger

From his back garden Robert Twigger can see kingfishers swooping and crocodiles emerging from the grey-green expanse of the Nile. Never ending, as wide as a lake in places, the Nile continually snakes its way north to the sea. It's a river steeped in history, and as Twigger searches for its source and probes its ancient, biblical and more contemporary existence, he uncovers the Nile's bloody, murderous past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Travel, Geography, Egypt, Biography

600 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 2013

About the author

Robert Twigger is a British author who has been described as, 'a 19th Century adventurer trapped in the body of a 21st Century writer'. He attended Oxford University and later spent a year training at Martial Arts with the Tokyo Riot Police. He has won the Newdigate prize for poetry, the Somerset Maugham award for literature and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

In 1997, whilst on an expedition in Northern Borneo, he discovered a line of menhirs crossing into Kalimantan. In 1998 He was part of the team that caught the world's longest snake- documented in the Channel 4/National Geographic film and book Big Snake; later he was the leader of the expedition that was the first to cross Western Canada in a birchbark canoe since 1793. Most recently, in 2009-2010, he led an expedition that was the first to cross the 700 km Great Sand Sea of the Egyptian Sahara solely on foot.

He has also written for newspapers and magazines such as The Daily Telegraph, Maxim and Esquire, and has published several poetry collections, including one in 2003, with Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing.

Robert has published Real Men Eat Puffer Fish (2008), a humorous but comprehensive guide to frequently overlooked but not exclusively masculine pastimes, while his latest novel Dr. Ragab's Universal Language, was published to acclaim in July 2009. Robert now lives in Cairo, a move chronicled in his book Lost Oasis. He has lead several desert expeditions with 'The Explorer School'.

Robert has given lectures on the topic of 'Lifeshifting', an approach which emphasises the need to centre one's life around meaning-driven motivation. Drawing on experiences working with indigenous peoples from around the world, he has spoken on 'work tribes' and polymathy. He has also spoken on leadership. Some of these talks have been to companies such as Procter and Gamble, Maersk Shipping, SAB Miller and Oracle computing.

Reviews

[Boudewijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories, related to the Nile and the countries in which it is flowing, from prehistory until the Egyptian Revolution of 2011

This book is a collection of stories related to the Nile. It covers a vast period, starting from prehistorian times to 2011. Robert Twigger lives in Egypt, and therefore has a great inside knowledge of the Nile.

The collection of stories starts in a chronological order, and ranges from stories about the great Pharaos, Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, the English, Napoleon, Flaubert, Florence Nightingale and so on ... For someone interested in general history this is a great variety that never leads to boredom.

I took me quite a long time before I finished this book. In fact, this is the only way to read this book. In the evening, when the kids are sound asleep, pick up this book, read a few chapters and call it a day. That makes this book last longer and more enjoyable.

The end of the book ends with the Egyptian Revolution. In these chapters, Robert Twigger vividly tells about his personal experience during the riots.

All in all, a very fun read.

[Yasmin]

I can't actually in all honesty give this book a fair star rating. There were parts I really liked and parts, toward the end, that I loathed. The book is a roaring gallop of time and places, rather like the flowing of the Nile itself. The journey starts out smooth and fairly brisk but then along comes bumps and near misses with whirlpools, the bumps along the way are not crocodiles and hippopotami, although at this junction I will point out I would far rather sit with crocodiles, hippos and baboons than any human being. That's the truth. Those large and uncertain animals are rather like wasps, you leave them alone and they will leave you alone. The bumps then became more like smashing into the dams, being dragged under and then squeezed through the cracks to be popped out the other side. In the literal contexts in my personal opinion people who are mentally disabled should not be labelled 'mad' and I think he watched too many old movies where in disgusting settings of institutions disabled people were shown to scream, shout or yell. It could be true that this may have happened, but neither he nor I are authorities on the validity of this suggestion. Having visited Egypt as a child and lived in a desert land for five years and knowing the fragile beauty that can be found in such an ecosystem I believe it is idiotic to promote quad biking in any form. Living where I do now it is equally idiotic to have quad bikes/atvs/humvees/snowmobiles and any other of those ugly bourgeois adult toys that do more harm than they could possibly do good. Despite the author living in Egypt far longer than I did in the neighbouring Middle East and having far more education than I have had his ignorance seems wide spread despite what the inside flap tells me. This may seem tiny and nitpicky but it seems to draw parallels further along. Foxes don't kill for curiosity. They kill more than one hen for example because they fully intend on coming back and storing the other carcasses for lean times. The reason why a lot aren't able to do this is because they are interrupted. It was equally unpleasant to read that in a generalised sweeping remark he makes it sound as though Arabs then and now are Taliban in appearance with shark faced dictators. Unfortunately this paranoia with the Taliban/jihadists/Islamists and 11/9 crop up quite a lot in this book. As well as 'darkest Africa' would have been more accurate, otherwise it smacks of colonialism in all its monstrousness or gives the impression there isn't much sun light in that part of Africa, where ever that is. As well as telling us about this sunless part of the great continent there was a regular feature of cannibals and at this point we seem to be further away from the Nile and an actual biography about the Nile than one could wish for. As you may have guessed the reader was not left with the ancient Egyptians for long. Roll on the Europeans! But not yet. Wait while we bump around to the ivory trade. In short there are too many elephants and it's all the China's fault. Which should read that because of the tourists coming to drive their quad bikes, paddle their canoes and stare at the pyramids and the Nile Egypt has to cater for this insatiable demand and the odd writer who will promise one thing and deliver another. Farmers need to expand their crops to feed all these extra mouths, cities grow, towns become cities and so on, farmers encroach on the elephants territory. The elephants are starving, some see a farmer's crop, easy food, they eat and become a menace. Does the author reassure the reader that he exposed Fabrice to the proper authorities? He does not. I get the distinct impression that Fabrice continues his illegal activity and the author has no guilty conscience at all. By this time I had the book down for three stars from five. It keeps slipping after that. Now roll on General Gordon. Shall we all weep salty tears as lush and long as the Nile once was for the fall of Gordon? That may be the requirement. I for one cannot believe that the opposing forces, the Mahdis, were not legitimate dervishes and that they're grievances were not legitimate and to be brushed off with the sweep of modern jihadists who were simply crazy and poor old Gordon was really poor old Gordon. If he didn't want to do it then he should have tried harder to find someone else. To be a fair and unbiased biographer one should always state the other sides reasons, even if the reasons are beyond the comprehension of the writer. However, I didn't get the impression at this point that the author was unbiased. Indeed it was all too clear where his bias lay. It was all very much apparent in the statement that during the empire the British record was impeccable. Well there are a lot of ghosts from the past he should dare risk saying that too. Not least and limited to the Beothuk people of Canada and the slaves that existed on from the British banning of the trade. Yes that must be clear that the banning of the trade in slaves did not stop there being slaves and while there were many British men that abhorred slave trade, mark you "slave trade", there were more than enough in positions of power that saw the need in the trade and practise. I disagree most strongly with his suggestion that while the empire existed before 1940s the record was impeccable. The decline of the empire was not complex and hard to decipher as the author makes out. At this point the stars slipped from one to none, but as I said because the first part was well done and made me think of the corniche of my early childhood.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one that has a difficult aim, and that is writing a biography of a river. What this means in practice is that the author tells a lot of interesting and somewhat sordid stories of the behavior of those who sought to control the river and its people and its water. While this book is by no means perfect, it is certainly interesting in the material that it covers, and the focus on exciting events as well as somewhat bloodthirsty stories provides a context that like many books on the subject of Egypt seeks to paint the Egyptian role in the Arab Spring as being a decisive historical event. This appears, alas, to be all too inaccurate when we look at these events with a bit of hindsight, it must be admitted. Yet although this is a bit of a shame, it may be readily admitted that the author does a good job at presenting the history of the Nile as being a long chain of violence that somewhat undercuts the author's claims that there was anything historical decisive about the events of 2011, which is more than can be said for many such accounts.

This book is somewhat strikingly organized, with about 450 pages of written material that is divided into only six chapters, each of which is divided into numerous smaller essays. The author begins with a list of illustrations, maps, and an introduction. After this the author talks about the natural Nile (1), looking at the animals and natural history of the river and its origin. This is followed by a look at the ancient Nile (2), including a look at famine and pestilence and less savory matters. A discussion of the Nile as the river of believers (3) includes a look at heathens, Copts, and Muslims. After this comes a discussion of the extension of the Nile through histories of raw steak and the efforts of Napoleon and other Westerners (4). Then the author explores the damming of the Nile (5) as well as the more recent history of the Nile from assassination to revolution (6). As might be imagined the author tends to view the Arab Spring as being a more decisive change in Arab affairs than actually has ended up being the case, a common mistake for failed prophets. The book ends with an epilogue, bibliography, acknowledgements, and an index.

It is striking that an attempt to make a biography of a river means in practice that this work spends a lot of time focusing on human beings in less than ideal circumstances. For example, to give a short summary of the book's interests would include a discussion of the assassination of Ramses III at the end of the New Kingdom, the assassination of Anwar Sadat, about whose half-Nubian ancestry much is made, and the love life of Napoleon in Egypt. Egypt's history is certainly deeply interesting, and the economic wealth that could be drawn from controlling both trade routes as well as the produce of peasants and their labor for monumental projects all combined to make Egypt a desirable area to rule over and an area that has never developed a great deal of political freedom. The Red Nile as a theme of this book makes for a look at some dark history that is generally obscure to the Western reader and that offers a great deal of interesting material to reflect upon. Whether or not the reader chooses to appreciate this is up to the individual person, but most people should find at least a bit to ponder about the effect of history on the culture and mindset of a place.

[Raz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, let's talk about the good stuff first: this book is legitimately full of interesting and well-researched facts about the history and people of the Nile. It's also got a nice cover I guess?

Aside from that though...wooh it was a struggle to get through this from start to end. I actually started reading this book like a year ago and had to put it down after a couple of months slogging my way through it because I couldn't put myself through it any longer. It sat in my bookshelf taking up space for months, and then because I am OCD about finishing anything I start reading I picked it up again not that long ago and forced my way to the end. Some points:

* I feel like maybe it could have done with some tighter editing. For something that's so densely packed with information, you need to have more clearly delineated points where you can stop to take a break and digest what you've just read before moving on to some whole new story which is only tangentially related to what you've just read.

* The language Twigger uses is flowery. It's REALLY flowery. At first, this just kind of had me rolling my eyes occasionally but as it gets closer to the end of the book and he's talking about more recent history it becomes mildly uncomfortable seeing him talk about stuff like Joseph Kony's army and the 2011 Egypt Revolution like they were parts of a novel rather than actual real life events that impacted real life people.

*Related (and this is the BIG one for me) - his insistence that stories are more important than understanding the world in literally measurable terms at first comes across as a kind of naive affectation but the more I applied that to the events and people described in this book, the more I found it to be actually quite distasteful and offensive. Twigger states that the motivation behind recording measurements of anything is purely one of wanting to enforce control over it and that a healthier way of understanding the world comes through the passing down of stories. It just seems really disingenuous to me for an Oxford-educated author of multiple books who's made a living in multiple countries to downplay the importance of critical investigation and analysis of the material world when he's reaped all the privileges of exactly that behaviour.

Stories ARE important, but they're not this pure incorruptible gift that he makes out. I wonder how the people of the world who've been abused and killed because someone manipulated a cultural narrative might feel about the idea that they're better off without the spectre of definable facts looming over them? Persecution doesn't happen because someone wanted to know how long the Nile is, it happens because someone told a story which says that women should be covered from head to toe or that Jewish and black people are subhuman, etc.

Modern medicine, plumbing, the technology we have which allows this guy to fly around the world and make a career telling his all-important stories; all of this stuff happened because somebody at some point indulged their natural curiosity about how the world works or what it's made of, and they set out to measure and define what they already knew to benefit themselves and others.

This attitude of his really comes out when he's talking about slavery, colonialism, revolution, basically anything where people have been systematically oppressed or violated. I get the distinct impression that Robert Twigger doesn't really care about the value of human life so much as he cares about a good story, and by the time I finished reading this book I'd come to the conclusion that I don't think I would like this guy at all if I met him at a party.

* Finally, this is only a minor thing but it's SO WEIRD as it's tonally a complete departure from the rest of the book - there's one chapter specifically where he talks about the death of explorer John Hanning Speke in 1864. Speke's death was ruled as accidental (155 year old spoiler alert: he died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound), though there's also a theory that he may have committed suicide. Twigger's theory however is that fellow explorer Richard Burton used the hypnotic power of the Yezidi Death Stare to compel Speke to run off and pop his clogs. This is only mentioned once in the book, and the whole incident is only a few pages long, but it's such a bizarre left-field conspiracy when the rest of the book is pretty firmly grounded in the real world.

tldr; there's definitely value in Red Nile, but my overwhelming takeaway is that the author's a douchebag.

[Bettie]

The Nile has teemed with crocodiles and hippopotami from the first century BC onwards, as this Roman mosaic shows

Description: From his back garden Robert Twigger can see kingfishers swooping and crocodiles emerging from the grey-green expanse of the Nile. Never ending, as wide as a lake in places, the Nile continually snakes its way north to the sea. It's a river steeped in history, and as Twigger searches for its source and probes its ancient, biblical and more contemporary existence, he uncovers the Nile's bloody, murderous past.

List of Illustrations
Maps
Introduction
1: Natural Nile: Beasts and Beginnings
2: Ancient Nile: Famine, pestilence and a severed penis
3: River of the Believers: Madness and Mystics
4: The Nile Extended: Raw steak and Napoleon
5: The Nile Damned: Elephants, exploration and Agatha Christie's trunk
6: Blood on the Nile: From assassination to revolution
Epilogue
A Very Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

A comfort read against the snowstorms.

Spectator review

[Ameya Warde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my god. I finished this book. Finally. *Tosses it on the ground and collapses into a crying heap*
Parts of it were super interesting. Parts were so long winded and rambling (especially closer to the end) my eyes glazed over and I skimmed ahead, which I hate doing. It was also just very... British. In the sense that it very much written by a decedent of British colonizers. For example, talking about Cannibalistic tribes that caused me to research them on my own, then finding out that their suspected Cannibalism is more likely just takes of racist white explorers back in the day (but this isn't mentioned in the book, it's just presented that those tribes *were* simply Cannibals. Or lines like this: "To the British, such an act of violence against the homeland of an indigenous people would have been unthinkable." That one left me amused and flabbergasted both.

I did watch Levison Wood's 4 part series "Walking the Nile" (on the UK's channel 4) while reading this, where Wood became the first recorded (to anyone's knowledge) person to walk the entire length of the River. It was intense, and I wish I'd have watched that before instead of near the end of reading this, as, not being very familiar with the geography of the Nile, i was often lost, until I saw the program and all their maps especially helped me put the geographical puzzle into place in my head.

For anyone interested in this subject, I'd say this book definitely is worth grabbing from the library and attempting, or at least skimming through. It's hefty, but it entirely consists of bite sized pieces, each a couple pages or less, pieced together (sometimes somewhat haphazardly), so it does, at least, make for easy skimming/cherry picking.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s almost impressive how often the author managed to insert himself into the narrative.

I'd looked forward to reading this, & now I look forward to never reading anything else he writes.

[Ita · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a parallel world of Story the River Nile is red, the colour of blood, passion and fertile silt. This book is a summer indundation of spellbinding stories, told by polymath, explorer and writer of beautiful lucid prose, Robert Twigger. Some of it I read aloud to my husband and his verdict included the words ‘superb’ and ‘outstanding.’

The distance covered is vast, on scales of both time and space. The physical Nile may have one of its sources in the Mountains of the Moon, where giant lobelias have flower spikes over fifteen feet long; but the Red Nile has a tributary in the land of the Iraquois Indians. In time it stretches from when the great river cascaded six miles down into the Tethys Sea (as the Mediterranean was called in ancient times) to the recent past and the uprising which deposed Mubarak.

Into this mighty time-space basin drain stories of ancient pharaohs, mad caliphs, alchemists and cruel sultans. Mamluks, Ottomans, European explorers, generals, colonisers and novelists follow; while battles and genocide ensure that the red of the Red Nile does not fade. For Robert Twigger there are no taboos.

This book is not just entertainment. For me it was an eduation in history for which I am deeply grateful.

Ita

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twigger assembles a rather massive string of Nile-related tales, somewhat in chronological order. He does travel to most areas he writes of, but the stories are mainly culled from mountains of literature. It's not really a history or a travel book, but more a popular-interest sort of folktale spinning. The focus tends to gravitate toward the celebrities of Nile history, and the explanations seem to reveal an inside story of what really happened with Moses, Cleopatra, or Saladin. Still, a big picture slowly emerges of environmental and geo-political transformation, and what these things mean for ordinary people. One of my favorite things in the book is the use of traditional Nile-country sayings to start each section. For example, "'The land of my fathers!' said the louse remaining on the bald head."

[David Canford · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me some time to get through this book as there is so much to absorb. I'm glad I kept coming back to it. There's so much fascinating stuff in it. The author has done an amazing research job. If you're interested in Egypt/Africa and history and geography you should enjoy it.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author's technique and purpose just were not suited to me. The narrative seemed jumpy and disjointed and the "history" not very well researched.

[Harry Cobbett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great tidbits for my trip, but did feel like a selection of linked Wikipedia articles at times. The narrative jumps around a lot, so loses focus.

[Ronan Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book desperately in need of an editor. I suspect the rambling style is viewed as the author's selling point but that is no excuse for a book that starts in outright confusion and is probably 200 pages longer than it needs to be.

Which is a pity as the core of the book - chapters 1-4 - are really very interesting. Lots of fascinating historical and geographical tidbits in there to keep you going. Having got that far, though, you feel like you've run a reading marathon so I confess I did what I almost never do. I gave up on the book. I just couldn't face up to a 150-page chapter 5!

[John Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to tell many stories about the Nile, more than 120 of them, The stories vary in length from a page to about 10 pages, but the different stories don't always have a connection to the stories around them. I found myself skimming too many sections as it felt like I had to start over each time with a new topic. Other books on the Nile that I have read had more of narratives to them and they allowed me to learn a lot about the river. There is a great deal in this book, but the style of this book, made it hard to follow. In the end, the book disappointed me.

[Caroline]

This should be retitled "Red Nile: How humans misbehave when they go near it."

There is plenty on the actual river, but there is also plenty to invite mistrust of the author. Twigger has boundless energy and enthusiasm, but comes at this with something like the ideas of the conquerors he describes, wanting to put every little story from British history that has anything to do with the Nile. You conquered the subject, Robert Twigger! But only from a British perspective, so you managed to somewhat undo what you accomplished in the beginning.

My purpose in picking it up in the first place was the discussion on the ancient Nile and for that (possibly since he has some distance from that time like we all do, it provided a bit of inherent detachment lacking in the later sections) it was an enjoyable read. The respect for the understanding the ancients had of the river we have taken for granted and tried to control in modern times was fascinating.

Things I did not want to know:
-how to kill 18 elephants for ivory, without any guns
-how to cure 2 pages of various poisons
-Gustav Flaubert's sexual trysts along the Nile
-how to imagine killing your captor from the tower he locked you into
-how the famous prostitute that lived along the Nile was described by different men
-how to bury a bunch of people alive
-cooking methods of cannibals
-slavery between tribes near the Nile, and creative ways to kill your slave when you don't need them anymore
-conventional views of Cleopatra

Things I did want to know:
-the 10 plagues on Egypt in the Bible, recast as natural disasters
-geological shifts changing the Nile over millions of years
-movements of ancient peoples due to these geographic shifts
-sources of the Nile, how the river swells
-Hippos, crocodiles, baboons, parasites
-sensory skills and intelligences of elephants
-caves for use by ancient oracles

I have been thinking about what book I would form out of this one, since the tone is so casual it feels like reading someone's notes. Since Twigger is writing from a life split in between the two countries, and since issues with colonialism have been brought up so well elsewhere on goodreads, I'll be more particular about it here: there is too much emphasis on fantasy and horror and not enough on the other side of that - the perspective that something that looks so exotic to one culture (especially one that thinks itself so superior that it gets stuck on the tiring narrative that only a special few are strong enough to get back to some essential uncivilized practices now lost) can be so normal in another. There were plenty of moments when Twigger talked about the normal differences between British culture and those surrounding the Nile, and I think he undervalued that. Since he invites comparisons, I would carefully edit for balance - why is a sensational story included, and what normalcy can contrast with it? He does this with things like the children that put on a show for tourists of eating burning coals. No one is interested in these children, but he asked them how they did it, and even though the kids were scared off, there was a tradition they were carrying out that was neither fantasy nor horror, aside from the eventual erosion of their teeth. So all of this exposure of colonialism is there somewhat, but I think a distinct form for the book and a more balanced emphasis would have brought it out. The energy he brings to digging up these stories sometimes feels like a license to tell them too fully. People will always be undone by what they fantasize about the exotic, especially if they feel entitled to chase that fantasy. And what horror will they find instead? I mostly really don't care. People are especially stupid about elusive things, while daily life along the Nile was likely very boring. So to deal better with the colonialism he looks back on, an acknowledgement that unlike back then it needs to move beyond the entertaining story. Yes, the book is entertaining, but we're past the pure entertainment value of another culture.

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meanders a little too much, even for a consciously meandering book. The first third was really strong; as often happens once history history gives way to events about which the author has political opinions, the text begins to lag and stagnate. It suffers as well under Mr Twigger's determination to be poetic and coin terms: the Blue Nile and White Nile are the two great tributaries which join, in Sudan, to give rise to the Nile. This is a sensible geographic and hydrological distinction. Twigger is at pains to introduce, justify and then use the invented term "Red Nile" for the whole river system. This is redundant: people routinely think of the whole system as "the Nile", because that's how we think about rivers. It reflects poorly, also, on Mr Twigger's history and storytelling: despite being billed as a "biography" of the Nile this book spends about five pages on the geology, geography, hydrology and ecology of the river and far more on the human history adjacent to the river. That's fine, but emphasises Twigger's idea of what makes good (or perhaps important) history. His idea of what makes good history is well-encapsulated by his insistence on the Nile's redness.

Better historians have observed that Egypt, and the Nile more broadly, was a place of broadly Coptic fellahin—extraordinarily capable high-density farmers with an ancient eye for and understanding of water—in the time of the pharaohs, four thousand years ago. It was a place of Coptic fellahin when Alexander arrived, and when Caesar arrived, and when Islam arrived, and when the Mamluks overthrew the Fatimids. It was a place of Coptic fellahin when the Ottomans threw out the Mamluks, and when the British threw out the Ottomans, and when the Egyptians threw out the British. For those thousands of years of history all but the most perfunctory and superficial historical eyes should be able to see that the overriding nature of that—like any—land has not been redness. It's disappointing to see the principal concern of this book oriented toward one of the least interesting aspects of history.

[Nhật Huy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Để viết tiểu sử về một dòng sông là không đơn giản. Điều này cho thấy Robert Twigger đã nỗ lực rất nhiều để viết "Red Nile - Tiểu sử của dòng sông vĩ đại nhất thế giới". Tác giả đã cố gắng cung cấp cho độc giả những câu chuyện thú vị và nhiều hành vi có phần u ám của những người tìm cách kiểm soát dòng sông, nguồn nước cũng như lãnh thổ con người quanh sông Nile.

Cuốn sách này được chia thành sáu chương, mỗi chương lại được chia thành nhiều bài luận nhỏ hơn.

Tác giả bắt đầu với một danh sách các hình minh họa, bản đồ và phần giới thiệu. Sau đó, tác giả nói về sông Nile tự nhiên (1), xem xét các loài động vật và lịch sử tự nhiên của con sông và nguồn gốc của nó. Tiếp theo là cái nhìn về sông Nile cổ đại (2), bao gồm cái nhìn về nạn đói và dịch bệnh và một cuộc thảo luận về sông Nile như dòng sông của các tín đồ (3) bao gồm cái nhìn về người ngoại giáo, người Copt và người Hồi giáo. Sự mở rộng của sông Nile thông qua lịch sử về món bít tết sống và những nỗ lực của Napoléon hay những người phương Tây nhằm chinh phục sông Nile (4). Sau đó, tác giả khám phá việc xây đập sông Nile. (5) cũng như lịch sử gần đây hơn của sông Nile từ những vụ ám sát đến các cuộc cách mạng. (6) Dễ dàng nhận thấy tác giả có xu hướng coi "mùa xuân Ả Rập" là một sự thay đổi mang tính quyết định trong các vấn đề Ả Rập hơn là thực tế đã diễn ra, một sai lầm phổ biến đối với các nhà tiên tri thất bại. Cuốn sách kết thúc với phần kết, thư mục, lời cảm ơn và một chỉ mục.

Điều đáng chú ý là nỗ lực làm tiểu sử về một dòng sông có nghĩa là trên thực tế, tác phẩm này dành nhiều thời gian tập trung vào con người trong những hoàn cảnh không lý tưởng. Ví dụ, cuốn sách sẽ bao gồm cuộc thảo luận về vụ ám sát Ramses III vào cuối Tân vương quốc, vụ ám sát Anwar Sadat, về người có tổ tiên lai Nubia và cuộc sống tình yêu của Napoléon ở Ai Cập. Lịch sử của Ai Cập là sự giàu có về kinh tế thu được từ việc kiểm soát cả các tuyến đường thương mại cũng như sản xuất của nông dân và sự chăm chỉ của những người lao động cho các dự án hoành tráng, tất cả đã kết hợp lại để biến Ai Cập trở thành một khu vực đáng mơ ước nhưng cũng là một khu vực chưa bao giờ có tự do chính trị. Chủ đề của cuốn sách này giúp chúng ta nhìn lại một số lịch sử đen tối mà người đọc thường ít biết đến và điều đó cung cấp rất nhiều tài liệu thú vị để suy ngẫm.

Người đọc có chọn đánh giá cao điều này hay không là tùy thuộc vào mỗi cá nhân, nhưng hầu hết mọi người nên tìm thấy ít nhất một chút gì đó để suy ngẫm về ảnh hưởng của lịch sử đối với văn hóa và tư duy của một nơi.

Bằng phép ẩn dụ "Red Nile - màu đỏ" màu của máu, đam mê và phù sa màu mỡ. Cuốn sách này ngập tràn những câu chuyện mê hoặc, được kể bởi nhà văn cũng là nhà thám hiểm Robert Twigger. Nội dung sách bao quát trên quy mô cả thời gian và không gian. Thời gian trải dài từ khi nước sông lớn đổ xuống biển Tethys (như Địa Trung Hải được gọi trong thời cổ đại) cho đến gần đây là cuộc nổi dậy đã hạ bệ Mubarak (mùa xuân Ả Rập)

Và lưu vực không gian hùng vĩ này là những câu chuyện về những Pharaoh cổ đại, những vị vua điên loạn, những nhà giả kim thuật, chiến binh Mamluks, đế chế Ottoman, các nhà thám hiểm châu Âu, các tướng lĩnh, những người khai hoang hay các tiểu thuyết gia đều lưu giữ dấu ấn cùng dòng chảy sông Nile, trong khi các trận chiến và nạn diệt chủng đảm bảo rằng màu Đỏ của sông Nile không bị phai nhạt.

Cuốn sách này không chỉ là giải trí, đối với tôi nó còn cung cấp cho tôi những kiến thức lịch sử văn hóa về một vùng đất mà tôi khao khát đặt chân đến.

#TusachLichsu
#Review
Để viết tiểu sử về một dòng sông là không đơn giản. Điều này cho thấy Robert Twigger đã nỗ lực rất nhiều để viết "Red Nile - Tiểu sử của dòng sông vĩ đại nhất thế giới". Tác giả đã cố gắng cung cấp cho độc giả những câu chuyện thú vị và nhiều hành vi có phần u ám của những người tìm cách kiểm soát dòng sông, nguồn nước cũng như lãnh thổ con người quanh sông Nile.

Cuốn sách này được chia thành sáu chương, mỗi chương lại được chia thành nhiều bài luận nhỏ hơn.

Tác giả bắt đầu với một danh sách các hình minh họa, bản đồ và phần giới thiệu. Sau đó, tác giả nói về sông Nile tự nhiên (1), xem xét các loài động vật và lịch sử tự nhiên của con sông và nguồn gốc của nó. Tiếp theo là cái nhìn về sông Nile cổ đại (2), bao gồm cái nhìn về nạn đói và dịch bệnh và một cuộc thảo luận về sông Nile như dòng sông của các tín đồ (3) bao gồm cái nhìn về người ngoại giáo, người Copt và người Hồi giáo. Sự mở rộng của sông Nile thông qua lịch sử về món bít tết sống và những nỗ lực của Napoléon hay những người phương Tây nhằm chinh phục sông Nile (4). Sau đó, tác giả khám phá việc xây đập sông Nile. (5) cũng như lịch sử gần đây hơn của sông Nile từ những vụ ám sát đến các cuộc cách mạng. (6) Dễ dàng nhận thấy tác giả có xu hướng coi "mùa xuân Ả Rập" là một sự thay đổi mang tính quyết định trong các vấn đề Ả Rập hơn là thực tế đã diễn ra, một sai lầm phổ biến đối với các nhà tiên tri thất bại. Cuốn sách kết thúc với phần kết, thư mục, lời cảm ơn và một chỉ mục.

Điều đáng chú ý là nỗ lực làm tiểu sử về một dòng sông có nghĩa là trên thực tế, tác phẩm này dành nhiều thời gian tập trung vào con người trong những hoàn cảnh không lý tưởng. Ví dụ, cuốn sách sẽ bao gồm cuộc thảo luận về vụ ám sát Ramses III vào cuối Tân vương quốc, vụ ám sát Anwar Sadat, về người có tổ tiên lai Nubia và cuộc sống tình yêu của Napoléon ở Ai Cập. Lịch sử của Ai Cập là sự giàu có về kinh tế thu được từ việc kiểm soát cả các tuyến đường thương mại cũng như sản xuất của nông dân và sự chăm chỉ của những người lao động cho các dự án hoành tráng, tất cả đã kết hợp lại để biến Ai Cập trở thành một khu vực đáng mơ ước nhưng cũng là một khu vực chưa bao giờ có tự do chính trị. Chủ đề của cuốn sách này giúp chúng ta nhìn lại một số lịch sử đen tối mà người đọc thường ít biết đến và điều đó cung cấp rất nhiều tài liệu thú vị để suy ngẫm.

Người đọc có chọn đánh giá cao điều này hay không là tùy thuộc vào mỗi cá nhân, nhưng hầu hết mọi người nên tìm thấy ít nhất một chút gì đó để suy ngẫm về ảnh hưởng của lịch sử đối với văn hóa và tư duy của một nơi.

Bằng phép ẩn dụ "Red Nile - màu đỏ" màu của máu, đam mê và phù sa màu mỡ. Cuốn sách này ngập tràn những câu chuyện mê hoặc, được kể bởi nhà văn cũng là nhà thám hiểm Robert Twigger. Nội dung sách bao quát trên quy mô cả thời gian và không gian. Thời gian trải dài từ khi nước sông lớn đổ xuống biển Tethys (như Địa Trung Hải được gọi trong thời cổ đại) cho đến gần đây là cuộc nổi dậy đã hạ bệ Mubarak (mùa xuân Ả Rập)

Và lưu vực không gian hùng vĩ này là những câu chuyện về những Pharaoh cổ đại, những vị vua điên loạn, những nhà giả kim thuật, chiến binh Mamluks, đế chế Ottoman, các nhà thám hiểm châu Âu, các tướng lĩnh, những người khai hoang hay các tiểu thuyết gia đều lưu giữ dấu ấn cùng dòng chảy sông Nile, trong khi các trận chiến và nạn diệt chủng đảm bảo rằng màu Đỏ của sông Nile không bị phai nhạt.

Cuốn sách này không chỉ là giải trí, đối với tôi nó còn cung cấp cho tôi những kiến thức lịch sử văn hóa về một vùng đất mà tôi khao khát đặt chân đến.

[Stuart Bathgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that succeeds in being both entertaining and erudite - always a difficult trick to pull off.
The Nile has been at the heart of human history since records began, and Twigger explores all the most significant episodes from the era of the Pharaohs to the 2011 revolution and its aftermath. There are some fascinating stories along the way, and it's especially interesting how much ancient knowledge (eg on the origins of the Nile itself) was lost for centuries or even millennia.
What makes the book particularly accessible is Twigger's ability to remain conversational and put himself into the story at times without being egotistical - another difficult trick. The amount of information and detail makes it quite a slow read, at least until we get to modern times, but it's well worth the effort.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the most unevenly written books I have read in a long time. The author tries to tell both the physical and historical story of the Nile River and the civilizations that have arisen on it over time. This would be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. However, the author lingers over some parts of the story at great length and skims over others with just a glance. it seemed to me that the more salacious a part of the tale was, the more attention it received. As an example, we are barely told anything about the details of the overthrow of the British General Gordon but he spends a long chapter on the life and death of Sadat. This is followed by a far-too-detailed discussion of the decomposition of bodies floating in water (The Tutsis murdered by Hutus.)
He also spends an enormous amount of time talking about himself.

[Joanne Coakley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Twigger's "Red Nile" is a captivating and informative journey down the world's greatest river.
It's a book that manages to be both easy to read and incredibly interesting, thanks to the engaging writing style and his knack for weaving in fascinating little stories and anecdotes.
He doesn't just present dry historical facts; he brings the river to life with vivid descriptions of its landscapes, people, and wildlife. He also delves into the rich history and mythology surrounding the Nile, sharing tales of pharaohs, explorers, and everyday people whose lives have been intertwined with the river for centuries.
Whether he's describing ancient Egyptian rituals, recounting the adventures of early explorers, or sharing his own experiences traveling along the river, Twigger keeps you hooked.
As someone who's been to Egypt and the Nile, this book really resonated with me.

[Masen Production · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Robert Twigger’s sense of humour. Dry, sarcastic at its best but not to miss the massive research that has gone into writing this book.
My recent trip to Egypt took me along the nile from Alexandria to Aswan & I could visualise all that was being narrated. Its an amazing journey of Nile through the ages and a different perspective (mostly rationale reasonings & sometimes too funny) to the what the guides tend to narrate.
I am no Egyptologist but this book is an amazing read for all those who wish to see the Nile civilisation in person. Many things will make sense if you visit Egypt post reading the book.
I am eagerly waiting for his next book...

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a relatively long but very interesting book. The breadth of knowledge shared is quite amazing. I struggled to take hold of it all. Zoology, history, geography, politics, hydrology and so much more are to be found in its pages, all in connection with the great river Nile. The author takes us through the different periods of history, in the different countries where the Nile flows, entertaining us with a host of stories.
Notwithstanding the unfortunate occasional use of crude language and violent descriptions, I find that I must give the book 5 stars.

[Paul Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book interesting on virtually every single page.
Covering a span of millennia, an epic tale is herein told of
the great river and its people and its places, and of the
fascination it has held over the many centuries for kings,
conquerors, explorers, writers. I think Red Nile should
be required reading in advanced history curricula.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you didn't want to know about the Nile.

I found it hard to finish this book. Stories about Cleopatra, crocodiles and cannibals were plentiful and very detailed with more facts than one can remember. Lengthy details about random subjects wore me out. I thought it would be more concise and not so wordy. It was simply not my favorite.

[Rachel Bowlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it- so informative for my trip to Egypt. It didn't have the best grammar at times, and many sentences were cumbersome. So four stars instead of five. But I loved it nonetheless. Especially the sections about the crocodiles.

[Caroline Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favourite book! It's the kind of book you want to immediately re-read. Super well written.

My only criticism is that it is a few chapters too long(I started to look forward to the wrap up) and doesn't talk about the current sit/future of the nile enough.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enormous (and very occasionally unwieldy) effort, that works wonderfully for the most part. Twigger has all the time in the world to tell his stories, and his digressions are equally entertaining.

[Michael Kott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Amazing job of bringing history to life. Written in such an interesting way it was hard to put down. I can't believe I never realized that Cleopatra was the last Egyptian pharaoh and that she had a daughter who looked just like her. Great Writing!

[Jeroen Van de Crommenacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great tid-bits of history connected to the Nile and engagingly written, but by its nature a bit disparate. To delve in and out.

[Donald W. Retzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was a series of interesting historical anecdotes somewhat in chronological order. They were engaging and insightful especially the contemporary experience of the Arab Spring revolution.