The Rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn records a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia, the author's home for more than twenty years; it is also an exploration of England's pastoral and imperial past. The narrator extends the horizons of Suffolk to embrace the exploitation in the Congo witnessed by Joseph Conrad and Roger Casement, the succession to the Dragon throne in Chinese history, Jorge Luis Borges, Chateaubriand, silkworm cultivation, Ireland's troubles, and the "ethnic cleansing" carried out fifty years ago in Bosnia.
The Rings of Saturn follows the trails of destruction human beings have wrought on themselves, and yet it is an unremittingly fascinating blend of fiction, autobiography, and history.