Falling Off The Map Some Lonely Places of the World

What does the elegant nostalgia of Argentina have in common with the raffish nonchalance of Australia? And what do both these countries have in common with North Korea? They are all 'lonely places' cut off from the rest of the world by geography ideology or sheer weirdness. And they have all attracted the attention of Pico Iyer.Whether he is documenting the cruising rites of Icelandic teenagers being interrogated by tipsy Cuban police or summarizing the plot of Bhutan's first feature film ('a $6500 spectacular about a star-crossed couple she dies he throws himself on the funeral pyre and both live happily ever after as an ox and a cow') Iyer is always uncannily observant and acerbically funny. Review 'Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed' -- New Yorker'Travel writing by Pico Iyer should come stamped with warning labels ""reading in public places may cause reader to collapse helplessly in mirth"" . . . As funny and informative [as Video Night in Kathmandu] . . . Hilarious surreal' -- Boston Sunday Herald'Iyer experiences and depicts these lonely places with the same wit vitality and insight that distinguish his first two books-and the result is a memorable gallery of countries poignantly isolated in spirit and time' -- San Francisco Examiner About the Author Pico Iyer is the author of more than a dozen books translated into twenty-three languages. His four recent TED Talks have received more than eight million views so far. In the summer of 2019 he was the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton guest director of the Telluride Film Festival and the first official writer-in-residence at Raffles Hotel in Singapore.