This is a journey against the flow of the great river, from its Black Sea mouth to its Black Forest source. Nick Thorpe starts at the end as he is more at home with the folk of the eastern, former communist countries; he speaks to many and elicits stories of their struggles. He deeply appreciates nature, too: he is informative and passionate about the fate of the sturgeon, the oldest fish, and about the environmental effect of man-made dams. This is quite a different book from Claudio Magris's elegant, literary Danube; Thorpe is more like a hyperactive tourist who knows every fact, legend and battle linked to each riverside town. But this book, too, leaves one in awe of the richness of the cultures of central Europe and with a longing for the humble pleasure of washing down a plate of fried pikeperch with a glass of Romanian white wine.
