"If Iyer is only a travel writer, then so was Henry James." -Los Angeles Times

"Iyer brings . . . startling freshness to his accounts of travel. . . . Ranks as one of Iyer's best books." -The Seattle Times

"Pico Iyer's remarkable talent is enough justification for going anywhere in the world he fancies." -Washington Post Book World

"Brilliant . . . [Iyer] reflects back at us images from a post-colonial world that is gorgeously complex and stubbornly elusive, yet firmly within his grasp." -New York Times

"Pico Iyer is among the finest travel writers of his generation." -Time

"Iyer travels to places that many of us have never been to, and may never go to. . . . Iyer writes beautifully, and I was happy to follow wherever his wanderings (physical and spiritual) led." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Pico Iyer is a writer like no other, sui generis, and in this book his particular gifts of thoughtfulness, perception and descriptive power, allied by now with profound experience, reach new levels of grace." -Jan Morris

"Jan Morris has retired; Graham Greene is dead. Pico Iyer is on his way to replacing them... Leave your guidebook behind. Go follow Iyer." -National Geographic Adventure

"Iyer is an exceptional travel writer, who not only limns Peruvian street maps with clarity and wit, but also offers a compelling rationale for immersing yourself in a foreign environment." -Gotham

"Iyer is a master of the ironic detail, and in these pieces he is able to notice the very objects whose juxtaposition will nail shut the lid of his beautifully constructed metaphorical box. . . . Goes where most of us will not go and returns with the dire details." -Kirkus Reviews

"Hallucinatory and observant, this little book confirms Iyer as one of the most gifted wanderers writing today." -Seattle Weekly

"Mr. Iyer writes with remarkable grace. . . . He is not only wonderful company but will take you on journeys-of place, heart and spirit-you perhaps had not dared imagine." -Santa Barbara News-Press

"The world's best travel writer." -The Oregonian