'A modern-day Freya Stark' - Tatler 'Roberts' writing is beguiling' - The i 'Roberts is a
wonderfully lyrical writer' - Observer ' An author of courage patience erudition and a
sympathetic imagination. - Dervla Murphy From the acclaimed author of The Lost Pianos of
Siberia comes a new journey tracing a colonial-era African expedition. In 1879 King Leopold
II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa's resources. The key to cracking
open the continent or so he thought was its elephants - if only he could train them. And so
he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian
elephants from India to the East African coast where they were marched inland towards Congo.
The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants. Following in the
footsteps of the four elephants Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten
expedition in travels that take her to Belgium Iraq India Tanzania and Congo. The
storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices from
ivory dealers to Catholic nuns set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. She
digs deep into historic records to reckon with our broken relationship with animals revealing
an extraordinary - and enduring - story of colonial greed ineptitude hypocrisy and folly.
............................................... Praise for The Lost Pianos of Siberia * An
extraordinary encounter with a wildly fascinating and astonishingly ill-known region... This is
a wonderful book. - Sunday Times * The ultimate quest for the oddest objects - pianos - in the
most unlikely place - Siberia. But Roberts makes it much more than that an elegant and nuanced
journey through literature through history through music murder and incarceration and
revolution through snow and ice and remoteness to discover the human face of Siberia. I loved
this book. - Paul Theroux * An impressive exploration of Siberia's terrifying past. - Guardian
* An exuberant eccentric journey through Russian vastness European history and Russian
culture The Lost Pianos of Siberia is a quixotic quest a picaresque travel adventure and a
strange forgotten story all wrapped into one fascinating book. - Simon Sebag-Montefiore *
What shines through in this book is Roberts' genuine humane affection for and fascination with
the people she meets in Siberia. - Literary Review
