next, author barry unsworth on his novel "land of marvels," set in 1914 and focuses on the attempts bystern nations to control part of mesopotamia. it is about 20 minutes. >> good afternoon. i would like to read a few pages of my new novel "land of marvels". each morning, armed with rifle and revolver, accompanied by his interpreter and two men from the village, also armed, aliens set off on horseback for the fields of bitumen that glittered a somber welcome to him. as he drew near. for a time that could not be measured, before there existed being able to measure time, this had continued to, the slide of oil from below the scaling rock, the spreading acreage of swamp. this horse might be far from the borders of the pitch. oil could migrate many miles before flanking the belt of shale or play that held it trapped. he had to find clues to the direction of flow, the whereabouts and ferocity and depth of the underlying reservoir rock. , was some indication, though far from entirely trustworthy. a fresher, more recent flow, sometimes yellow against a darkly weathered older pitch. he was pro