Synopses & Reviews
On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Tsar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynastys sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. One of the last Tsarist secret agents, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of Chinas modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibets struggle for independence.
On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheims footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheims route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of a century ago and today.
Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into Chinas past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? As Confucius once wrote, Study the past if you would divine the future,” and that is precisely what Tamm does in The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds.
Review
Praise for The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds
"A complicated, ambitious travel adventure through modern Inner Asia . . . a truly inspired journey." Kirkus
Following in the footsteps of Baron Carl Gustav Mannerheim, the last Tsarist spy in the so-called Great Game, Tamm has written a grand sweep of a narrative. It combines a long and arduous physical journey9 months and 17,000 kilometers from St. Petersburg across the Tibetan Plateau and the Gobi desert to Beijingwith the revelations of high stakes historyespionage in virtually unknown territory in the early years of the twentieth century. At its core, this is a journey into the soul of the Middle Kingdom, and the roots of modern China. Full of wild characters, harsh geography, and historical surprise, Tamms journey reveals him to be at once an intrepid adventurer, fine writer, and discerning historian. Altogether a wonderful book.” Wade Davis
Praise for Beyond the Outer Shores
Tamms account of Rickettss short life . . . is an engrossing memoir. Freelance writer Tamm smartly weaves in-depth literary analysis of Steinbecks fiction into his narrative, though writing relatively little about mythologist Joseph Campbells spiritual explorations . . . Tamm writes with impassioned honesty about his subjects many dimensions.” Publishers Weekly
Tamm . . . presents an affecting and mind-expanding group portrait of three creative thinkers.” Booklist
About the Author
Eric Enno Tamm is an author and journalist. His first book, Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell, was a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Toronto Star, among others. Tamm currently lives in Ottawa.