Thirty years after the epic journey chronicled in his classic work The Great Railway Bazaar, the world's most acclaimed travel writer re-creates his 25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented the modern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by train through Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothers under dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of the havoc America was unleashing on it the last time Theroux passed through. And no one is better able to capture the texture, sights, smells, and sounds of that changing landscape than Theroux. Theroux's odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-over from communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbor Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism. Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, traveling as the locals do--by stifling train, rattletrap bus, illicit taxi, and mud-caked foot--encountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad). And wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain. PAUL THEROUX was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1941 and published his first novel, Waldo, in 1967. His fiction includes The Mosquito Coast, My Secret History, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, Blinding Light, and most recently, The Elephanta Suite. His highly acclaimed travel books include Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, Fresh Air Fiend, and Dark Star Safari. He has been the guest editor of The Best American Travel Writing and is a frequent contributor to various magazines, including The New Yorker. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
Amazon Best of the Month, August 2008: Way back in the dark pre-Internet, limited-air-travel world of 1975, the way to get from Europe to Asia was by train. A young and ambitious writer named Paul Theroux made his literary mark by taking the 28,000-mile intercontinental journey via rail from London to Tokyo and back home again. His book, The Great Railway Bazaar, became a travel-lit classic. Thirty years later, an older, wiser, and even less sanguine Theroux decided to retrace his steps. The result is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, a fascinating account of the places you vaguely knew existed (Tbilisi), probably won't ever go to (Bangalore), but definitely should know something about (Mandalay). Get on board Theroux's fast-moving travelogue, which features some of the most astute commentary on our distorted notions of time, space, and each other in the age of jet speed, broadband connections, and cultural extinction. --Lauren Nemroff
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Great nostalgia trip Theroux again follows sort of the same route he took in "The Great Railway Bazaar" some 30-odd years ago, and the results are even more interesting this time because he's matured and the sights are even more exotic. Theroux fans know what to expect from his "travel" tomes: i.e., not travelogues, but acute observations of human behavior and settings most of us will probably never visit. This will make you want to re-read the first book. Fans will have already devoured this, so any newcomers are urged to... more info
Asia by train: Part Two Well known novelist (The Mosquito Coast) and travel writer (Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown(see my review),The Great Railway Bazaar, and others) Paul Theroux writes of a meandering journey starting from Western Europe, mostly by train, counter-clockwise around Asia. Theroux had made this trip (with a few differences) in a previous book, The Great Railway Bazaar, 30 years ago. Theroux is one of the great living travel writers and is known for being opinionated and selective in his... more info
travel book I have read all of Paul Theroux's travel books and enjoyed everyone of them. I think this one is his best and I was disappointed when I got to the end. He manages to paint vivid pictures of the places to which he travels so that they come to life, for this reader anyway.
Paul is Back -- Cranky, Dyspeptic, Opinionated, Nosy, Thoughtful, Observant -- Just How I Like Him! Like Gore Vidal, I am a great fan of Paul's nonfiction works, while I am lukewarm at best to most of his fictional efforts. I guess what I love best about both authors is their voice -- that inescapable, unique interior framing, phrasing, and articulation -- that makes just about everything they do or write interesting to me. It's that first-person view of things that I just love from them. This book is one of Paul's best -- a rumination on aging, memory, time, travel, and the world. Paul takes a... more info
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