Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Orwell Diaries
George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. The Orwell Diaries presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his last literary notebook. An entry from 1931 tells of a communal shave in the Trafalgar Square fountains, while notes from his travels through industrial
The Old Patagonian Express
`The Old Patagonian Express` is Paul Theroux’s record of his train journey down the length of North and South America in the 1970’s, from an icy Massachusetts to Argentina’s arid southern tip, via pretty Central American towns, the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu and a meeting with Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires. Sweating
Maggie Cassidy
From the bard of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac`s Maggie Cassidy is an autobiographical novel of young love, published in Penguin Modern Classics.Though publishers stopped `Maggie Cassidy`s Jack Duluoz and `On the Road`s Sal Paradise from sharing the same name, Kerouac meant the books to be two parts of the same life. While `On the
Hindoo Holiday: An Indian Journey
In the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the personal secretary to the maharajah of a small Indian principality. In his journals, Ackerley recorded the Maharajah`s fantastically eccentric habits and riddling conversations, and the odd shambling day-to-day life of his court. “Hindoo Holiday” is an intimate and very funny
The Assistant
Dressed in his cheap, battered suit, Joseph Marti arrives at the impressive villa of Karl Tobler, an enthusiastic but ill-starred inventor, to begin employment as his clerk. Tobler is determined to finance his family`s lavish lifestyle with the proceeds from his latest idea – a clock adorned with advertisements. But Tobler`s grand plans are destined
Journey through a Small Planet
In “Journey Through a Small Planet” (first published in 1972), the writer Emanuel Litvinoff recalls his working-class Jewish childhood in the East End of London: a small cluster of streets right next to the city, but worlds apart in culture and spirit. With vivid intensity Litvinoff describes the overcrowded tenements of Brick Lane and Whitechapel,
South From Granada
Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen, and ‘South from Granada” depicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Andalucian way of life before the Civil War.He describes the landscapes, festivals and folklore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship
Love in a Fallen City
Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang`s achievement is her short fiction – tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when she was still in
Alone in Berlin
Hans Fallada’s `Alone in Berlin` is the latest from the author of `Little Man, What Now?` and `The Drinker`, again set against the backdrop of the Second World War.It begins in Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi
Half A Lifelong Romance
From one of twentieth-century China`s greatest writers and the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai. Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shijun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream
Forbidden Colours
Written when Mishima was only twentysix,”Forbidden Colors is a depiction of a male homosexual relationship, in which a rich older man buys the love of a young man who is stunningly handsome but who lacks the ability to love. As in Mann`s “Death in Venice”, the older man`s longing for the beauty of youth is
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse`s moving and inspirational chronicle of spiritual evolution, `Siddhartha`, includes a new introduction by bestselling author Paulo Coehlo. `Siddhartha` is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy
Solo Faces
Rand lives free; lean, pure and defiant, the world has little influence on him. His passion is climbing – the mountains, the huge vertical faces. There, where storms, snow, or rockfall can kill, he finds his happiness, sometimes climbing with others, sometimes alone. This is a novel of obsession and where it leads. Rand, not
Road to San Giovanni
Road to San Giovani comprises five elegant autobiographical meditations written by Italo Calvino, who delves into his past, remembering awkward childhood walks with his father, a lifelong obsession with the cinema and fighting in the Italian Resistance against the Fascists. He also muses on the social contracts, language and sensations associated with emptying the kitchen
Under the Jaguar Sun
A couple on an epicurean journey across Mexico are excited by the idea of a particular ingredient, suggested by ancient rituals of human sacrifice. Precariously balanced on his throne, a king is able only to listen to the sounds around him – sure that any deviation from their normal progression would mean the uprising of
The Path to the Spiders` Nests
Italo Calvino`s “The Path to the Spiders` Nest” looks at Pin, a bawdy and adolescent cobbler`s assistant, both arrogant and insecure who – while the Second World War rages – sings songs and tells jokes to endear himself to the grown-ups of his town – particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as
Beautiful Antonio
Having spent some time in Rome, Antonio – the handsomest young man in Catania – returns to his native town with the reputation of being a playboy and with a long list of amorous adventures behind him. To please his father, Antonio agrees to marry the beautiful Barbara. A year after their marriage however –
Hermit in Paris
Italo Calvino once said that he preferred to give false details about his biography since he felt that even the genuine data of a writer`s life shed no light on the creative work. But this volume of posthumously collected personal writings is the closest we will ever come to the autobiography of this most private
The Great Railway Bazaar
`The Great Railway Bazaar` is Paul Theroux’s account of his epic journey by rail through Asia in 1975. One of the greatest journeys – recounted by one of the greatest writers – of the twentieth century.Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes – the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from
Queer
Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, `Queer` is an enigma – both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs` only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies that paved the way for his masterpiece, `Naked Lunch`. Set in Mexico City during the early fifties, `Queer` follows William
