{"product_id":"9780008126643","title":"The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu: The Quest for this Storied City and the Race to Save Its Treasures","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘An exemplary work of investigative journalism that is also a wonderfully colourful book of history and travel’ Observer, Books of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘A piece of postmodern historiography of quite extraordinary sophistication and ingenuity… [written with] exceptional delicacy and restraint’ TLS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo Westerners, the name ‘Timbuktu’ long conjured a tantalising paradise, an African El Dorado where even the slaves wore gold. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, a series of explorers gripped by the fever for discovery tried repeatedly to reach the fabled city. But one expedition after another went disastrously awry, succumbing to attack, climate, and disease.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTimbuktu was rich in another way too. A medieval centre of learning, it was home to tens – according to some, hundreds – of thousands of ancient manuscripts, on subjects ranging from religion to poetry, law to history, pharmacology, and astronomy. When al-Qaeda-linked jihadists surged across Mali in 2012, threatening the existence of these precious documents, a remarkable thing happened: a team of librarians and archivists joined forces to spirit the manuscripts into hiding.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRelying on extensive research and firsthand reporting, Charlie English expertly twines these two suspenseful strands into a fascinating account of one of the planet's extraordinary places, and the myths from which it has become inseparable.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Charlie English","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47275105058965,"sku":"9780008126643","price":13.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008126643.png?v=1776889862","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008126643","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}