Trail of Feathers

With its rich pre-Hispanic heritage, the Andes and the Amazon, recent years have seen Perú welcoming more than its fair share of adventure tourists. Trial of Feathers tells of Tahir Shah's intriguing journey to uncover what lies behind the remarkable "birdmen" legends--from textiles of ancient cultures from Perú's Atacama Desert showing flying men; and accounts of a 16th-century Spanish monk who stated that indigenous people were able to fly. Travelling in areas overrun by tourists, and then into remote parts of the Amazon, Shah book throws up an unexpectedly powerful mystical heart even in the midst of what is now a familiar country. The climax and focal point is Shah's journey up a remote tributary of the Amazon in search of the Shuar people, who are believed to be descendants of the Atacameño peoples who gave rise to the legends.

No stranger to the magic of distant countries--his previous book, Sorcerer's Apprentice, confronted the magicians of India--Shah's own "flight" leads him to persuasive explanations of both the legends of aviation and of Perú's most mysterious phenomenon, the Nazca Lines. Both erudite and entertaining, Trail of Feathers is a timely book. In writing about secrets from an apparently well-worn destination, Shah restores something of the mystery of distant places in an age when it is possible to believe that most things are seen and known. --Toby Green

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