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Asian Absences: Searching For Shangrila

140.000

122 in stock


AuthorWolfgang Buscher
ISBN9789385288821
Published LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2015
PublisherSpeaking Tiger
BindingPaperback
Pages160
Ships By2-3 days

Description

Asian Absences is the contemplative and lyrical narrative of Wolfgang Büscher’s travels across India, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia and Japan. While in India, he visits an opulent palace and a fever forces him to take refuge in an abandoned hospital for lepers. Later, he embarks on an industrial oil tanker sailing from Dubai to Singapore. On a stormy day, a rickety boat takes him from Thailand to Phnom Penh. In Kathmandu, he joins a group of shamans on their way to the annual sacrificial feast on a mountaintop. He then examines the ‘beautifully odd’ curiosities of Tokyo’s metropolis, before arriving at his final destination, the elusive and mythical city of Shangri-La.
Büscher vividly captures the conflicting emotional and intellectual responses of a stranger in distant lands, evoking both the exotic wonder and threatening otherness of unfamiliar cultures, that repeatedly challenge mythic assumptions about the East.
Asian Absences is a subtle and compelling investigation into the perils and rewards of leaving one’s comfort zone and journeying to unknown lands. By evading simple conclusions, Büscher impels the reader on a journey of enlightenment that is both troubling and beautiful.

About the author
Wolfgang Büscher heads the features desk of the German daily newspaper Die Welt. He was awarded the Johann-Gottfried-Seume- Literaturpreis (2003) for his book Berlin to Moscow: A Journey on Foot. The German president, Horst Köhler, praised him for travelling the world ‘open-eyed and without prejudice’ when awarding Büscher the Ludwig-Börne-Preis (2006) for his journalism.

Additional information

Author

ISBN

Published Language

Publication Year

Publisher

Binding

Pages

160

Ships By

2-3 days