Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented themodern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by trainthrough Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded inthat book has undergone phenomenal change.The Soviet Union hascollapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothersunder dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of thehavoc America was unleashing on it the last time he passedthrough.
In GhostTrain to the Eastern Star, Theroux re-creates that earlierjourney. His odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-overfrom communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into theCaucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while itsneighbor Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism.Theroux isfirsthand witness to it all, encountering adventures only he couldhave: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureateOrhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on theTrans-Siberian Railroad).Wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosityand unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten,inform, and entertain.