Translated by Robyn Marsack

Translated here for the first time into English, this collection of shorter travel writings from the golden pen of Nicolas Bouvier covers journeys undertaken in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. In the Aran Isles in mid-winter, he glories in the extremities of the wind outside while inside, feverish, he is enchanted by local tales which hum like a kettle on the fire. In Xian, he pays homage to the civilised brilliance and understatement of his guide, while in Korea he experiences the unchanging beauty of the Buddhist temple at Haeinsa and is marked forever by his climb of volcanic Halla-San. And the roots of his interminable curiosity and amusement are traced back to his childhood reading, and to the bitter war he conducted at the age of eight to rid himself of his arch-nemesis, Bertha.

Published for the first time in English, this is the final element in Eland’s homage to Bouvier. We already publish his cult classic The Way of the World: Two men in a car from Geneva to the Khyber Pass, as well as The Scorpion-Fish and The Japanese Chronicles.

‘Nicolas Bouvier was a writer of rare grace and subtlety.  Every essay here shimmers with imaginative insight and wry humour. He has long been known to cognoscenti.  Now, perhaps, his stature will be more widely recognised: one of the most brilliant, penetrating and individual travel writers of his time.’  Colin Thubron