{
    "id": 326914,
    "slug": "the-rivers-tale",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "The River's Tale",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<p><em>Along the Mekong, from northern Tibet to Lijiang, from Luang Prabang to Phnom Penh to Can Lo, I moved from one world to another, among cultural islands often ignorant of each other&rsquo;s presence. Yet each island, as if built on shifting sands and eroded and reshaped by a universal sea, was re-forming itself, or was being remolded, was expanding its horizons or sinking under the rising waters of a cultural global warming. It was a journey between worlds, worlds fragiley conjoined by a river both ominous and luminescent, muscular and bosomy, harsh and sensuous.&nbsp;<br /></em><br /><span>From windswept plateaus to the South China Sea, the Mekong flows for three thousand miles, snaking its way through Southeast Asia. Long fascinated with this part of the world, former&nbsp;</span><em>New York Times&nbsp;</em><span>correspondent Edward Gargan embarked on an ambitious exploration of the Mekong and those living within its watershed.&nbsp;</span><strong>The River&rsquo;s Tale</strong><span>&nbsp;is a rare and profound book that delivers more than a correspondent&rsquo;s account of a place. It is a seminal examination of the Mekong and its people, a testament to the their struggles, their defeats and their victories.</span></p>",
    "description": "<p><em>Along the Mekong, from northern Tibet to Lijiang, from Luang Prabang to Phnom Penh to Can Lo, I moved from one world to another, among cultural islands often ignorant of each other&rsquo;s presence. Yet each island, as if built on shifting sands and eroded and reshaped by a universal sea, was re-forming itself, or was being remolded, was expanding its horizons or sinking under the rising waters of a cultural global warming. It was a journey between worlds, worlds fragiley conjoined by a river both ominous and luminescent, muscular and bosomy, harsh and sensuous.&nbsp;<br /></em><br /><span>From windswept plateaus to the South China Sea, the Mekong flows for three thousand miles, snaking its way through Southeast Asia. Long fascinated with this part of the world, former&nbsp;</span><em>New York Times&nbsp;</em><span>correspondent Edward Gargan embarked on an ambitious exploration of the Mekong and those living within its watershed.&nbsp;</span><strong>The River&rsquo;s Tale</strong><span>&nbsp;is a rare and profound book that delivers more than a correspondent&rsquo;s account of a place. It is a seminal examination of the Mekong and its people, a testament to the their struggles, their defeats and their victories.</span></p>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": null,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2003-01-07",
    "publication_date_latest": "2003-01-07",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9780375705595",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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    "rating_average": null,
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    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:19:49+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-10-28T00:25:37+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 45,
        "slug": "vintage",
        "name": "Vintage",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:08:37+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:05:54+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 196041,
            "slug": "edward-a-gargan",
            "key_names": "Gargan",
            "names_before_key": "Edward",
            "prefix_to_key": "A.",
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": []
}