Advanced Search

AVAILABLE JANUARY 2010 Argentina has produced some of the most well-known writers of the Americas: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Luisa Valenzuela, to name but a few from the country's capital, Buenos Aires. But what lies beyond Argentina’s urban center will equally intrigue readers as they travel through one of the most geographically and culturally diverse regions of Latin America. This...

Brazil is the largest and arguably the most dynamic country in South America. Each of the myriad cultures is so distinct that it would be impossible to characterize Brazil with one voice. Here is a collection of nearly forty stories drawn from all corners of that vast land, inlcuding the Amazon and its two dominant cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Avoiding the pitfalls of a scholarly tome,...

Whether revealing small-town superstitions or exposing Beijing's underworld, these works of literary fiction offer insights to modern China. The diversity and dynamics of a country on its way to being the economic power of the world are reflected here in the literature of its best writers. Travel to the idyllic mountains and streams of West Hunan; a picturesque water town and the silkworm-raising...

Travel to Cuba in the company of its finest writers and gain an understanding of its remarkable mystique. The twenty-one stories in this collection—some of which appear in English for the first time—will take you on an odyssey through the country's rich past to its dynamic present, where it is poised at the brink of immense change. Arranged by the areas of Cuba they illuminate, these stories...

Seventeen stories by some of the best contemporary gay writers evoke a variety of experiences relevant to the gay traveler. Here Paul Monette strives to visit the ruins of Tiberius's villa during a cruise stop in Capri. This struggle prompts him to string together moments of thundering clarity on various peaks and temple sites to form a truly inspired piece of travel writing. Joe Orton combines...

AVAILABLE SPRING 2010 The latest book in our acclaimed series of literary travel guides brings together a smorgasbord of short fiction from one of the world’s most diverse, multicultural, and storied civilizations: India. India: A Traveler's Literary Companion features 14 short stories from some of India’s best writers, collectively offering an insightful portrait of the beauty and complexity of...

There may be no place more blessed —or burdened—with narrative than Israel. In this country, story and place are inextricable. From stories set in the historical, holy city of Jerusalem to those that take place in the modern, secular city of Tel Aviv, from writing addressing the current "situation" to tales inspired by the timeless desert, this volume of sixteen short stories of Israel's finest...

This collection guides the reader through the complexity that is Japan. Although frequently misunderstood as a homogenous nation, Japan is a land of tremendous linguistic, geographical, and cultural diversity. Hino Keizo leads the reader through Tokyo's mazes in "Jacob's Tokyo Ladder." Nakagami Kenji explores the ghostly, mythology-laden backwoods of Kumano. Atoda Takashi takes us to Kyoto to...

Mexico has long been the top travel destination for Americans. But until now, there has not been such a panoramic vision of Mexico offered by some of Mexico's finest contemporary writers of fiction and literary prose. Here are writings—many translated for the first time—that bring you to the people of the beaches, deserts, jungles, snow-capped mountains, and megacities. The voices are rich and...

In time for those planning to travel to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament! Eighteen contemporary short stories by South Africa’s best writers take the reader on a journey through the country's literary landscape. Giants such as Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, and Alan Paton (whose Cry, the Beloved Country, excerpted in the book, was made into a major motion picture) are...

"Reading the wonderfully varied and unexpected stories assembled here, I was struck by how much the notion of pilgrimage today has to do with retrieving a sense of purpose (and simplicity, and constancy); with putting oneself, quite literally, in the footsteps of the past. Once upon a less secular time, almost everyone made pilgrimages, and most of the great works of our early literature—Dante's...

Since relations between the U.S. and Vietnam have normalized, many more people are traveling to this exotic country, previously closed to a generation of Western visitors. Vietnam provides one of the first chances for Americans to know the Vietnamese outside the context of war. Vietnamese have been telling stories for thousands of years, in poetry and in song, in Chinese script and then in...