First, a warning: This book isn't the usual kind of book about food; it has no restaurant reviews, and very few recipes. You won't hear about that darling place in Dordogne, but you may learn how to slice a cuttlefish. This is about food as experience. And who better to describe that experience than the French?French Feast is a wide-ranging collection of mostly short stories that starts as far back as Gargantua and The Three Musketeers, meanders forward through The Belly of Paris, and bursts with a flowering of such different modern writers as the authors of The Small Pleasures of Life and The Butcher.The stories' variety and idiosyncratic twists are delicious. Who would have thought that the bank robber's gun was actually made of nougat? Or that you can starve at a chic Paris dinner when the fuses blow? Some stories are elegiac, like "The Taste of New Wine," or rich with family memories, like "Bresse." Others cast an ironic eye on diners' manners—or their marriages, as in "Tears of Laughter." Still others lusciously combine food and love: you can use porcupine stew to seduce a neighbor, or a caramel berlingot to poison a faithless lover. The trick, in food as in writing, is to do it with taste.

French Feast: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Whereabouts Press

Journey into the Costa Rican imagination through twenty-six remarkable stories, selected and organized regionally for the curious traveler. Here, for the first time in English, the best of Costa Rica's writers conjure the country's allure and vitality, its coffee fields and palm groves, cicadas and songbirds, shrouded mountains and blazing savannas, while telling stories unique to Costa Rican life. Contributors include Alfredo Aguilar, Fernando Durán Ayanegui, Alfonso Chase, Quince Duncan, Fabián Dobles, Louis Ducoudray, Carlos Luis Fallas, Mario Gonzáles Feo, Joaquín Gutiérrez, Carlos Salazar Herrera, Max Jiménez, Carmen Lyra, Carmen Naranjo, Yolanda Oreamuno, Abel Pacheco, Julieta Pinto, Uriel Quesada, Samuel Rovinski, José León Sánchez, and Rima de Vallbona.

Costa Rica: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions, 1)

Barbara Ras

Oscar Arias

United States

Travel to one of the most beautiful cities in the world in the company of its finest writers. Walk the mysterious nighttime streets of Prague with Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek, eavesdrop on intimate conversations in restaurants and lively beer halls with Karel Capek and Bohumil Hrabal, listen to jazz in stylish nightclubs with Josef Skvorecky. The stories in this volume — many of which appear in English for the first time — will take you on a personal odyssey through the city's stormy past to its dynamic present. For the traveler who wishes to experience something of its essence, Prague illuminates the heart and soul of a great city. Contributors include Michal Ajvaz, Karel Capek, Ivan Divis, Jaroslav Hasek, Daniela Hodrova, Bohumil Hrabal, Alois Jirasek, Franz Kafka, Jiri Karasek ze Lvovic, Egon Erwin Kisch, Ivan Klima, Jiri Kovtun, Frantisek Langer, Gustav Meyrink, Jan Neruda, Karel Pecka, Ota Pavel, Josef Skvorecky, Jindriska Smetanova, Jachym Topol, and Jiri Weil.

Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Paul Wilson

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 Vietnamese nôm, and more recently, in novels and short stories. These 17 stories, from contemporary Vietnamese writers living in Vietnam and abroad, take the literary traveler to extraordinary places: from the jungle-clad mountain ranges of the North to the mysterious silence of the old capital along the Perfume River. Proximity of the spirit world, love of family, exhaustion from war, one's Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist obligations, social protest, and the hunger for a better life — these are some of the concerns to be encountered in these thrilling landscapes. Contributors include Nguyen Huy Thiep, Linh Bao, Nguyen Ba Trac, Thich Duc Thien, Ho Anh Thai, Le Minh Khue, Doan Quoc Sy, Vu Bao, Duong Thu Huong, Andrew Q. Lam, Nguyen Qui Duc, Qui The, Bao Ninh, and Pham Thi Hoai.

Vietnam: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Balaban, John

Nguyen, Qui Duc

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 new writers, and some of its best-loved ones, captures for the reader one of the world's most fascinating travel destinations. Contributors include Gafi Amir, Yossi Avni, Yosl Birstein, Orly Castel-Bloom, David Ehrlich, David Grossman, Shulamith Hareven, Etgar Kerrett, Yoram Kolerstein, Yitzchak Laor, Amos Oz, Ofra Riesenfeld, Gadi Taub, and A. B. Yehoshua.

Israel: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Robert Alter

Michael Gluzman

Naomi Seidman

Discover Greece — a country that has inspired centuries of travel — through its best modern writers. Against a superb landscape of islands, rocks, caves, villages, windmills, vineyards, cities, ports, beaches, and ruins, all bathed in the rich light of the Mediterranean, these twenty-four stories draw from the long oral and written evolution of the Greek literary tradition. Incorporating myths, the meditative tranquillity of the region, and a past full of struggle and civil war, these stories are arranged by geographical region for the traveler and provide an enriching odyssey through the Greek landscape and mind. Contributors include Elli Alexiou, Melpo Axioti, Odysseus Elytis, Michel Faïs, Eugenia Fakinou, Rhea Galanaki, Marios Hakkas, Dimitris Hatzis, Nikos Kazantzakis, Margarita Karapanou, Alexandra Papadopoulou, George Seferis, Vassilis Vassilikos, Ilias Venezis, Leonidas Zenakos, Yiorgos Chouliaras, Georgios Drosinis, Yorgos Ioannou, Christoforos Milionis, Kostas Ouranis, Thanassis Valtinos, Eva Vlami, and Manolis Xexakis.

Greece: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Artemis Leontis

Journey down under in the company of Australia's finest writers. From stories of survival in the bush to vacationing at the beach, from immigrants adjusting to the new land to aboriginal displacement to the city, these twenty-five enthralling stories allow the reader to cover this large continent in a most imaginative way. Ranging from the colonial period to contemporary Australia, these stories invoke the alluring scent of gum trees, the exotic kangaroos and dingoes, the busy city streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and the vast and mysterious outback, as well as some unforgettable Australian characters and their voices. By traveling with the greatest Australian writers who know the land best, readers can more deeply experience the culture of this country and the rich tradition of its literature. Contributors include Thea Astley, Murray Bail, Barbara Baynton, Peter Carey, Eleanor Dark, Robert Drewe, Helen Garner, Xavier Herbert, Janette Turner Hospital, Elizabeth Jolley, C.J. Koch, David Malouf, Oodgeroo and Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Henry Lawson, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Steele Rudd, Mandy Sayer, Arthur Upfield, Judah Waten, Archie Weller, Patrick White, Michael Wilding, Tim Winton, and B. Wongar.

Australia: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Robert L. Ross

From the foreword by Felice Picano
"This volume makes no attempt to rival those gay travel guides that already exist. It is something different, far more intriguing: a collection of stories that aim at being what Herman Melville deemed "an inside narrative." That is, what being a gay man in a foreign land really feels like, smells like, tastes like, and hurts like. The voices here might be likened to those of friends sitting around a dinner table the night before your journey who provide you with insights and warnings that only later do you discover add infinitely to your excursion."
Table of ContentFelice Picano "Foreword" Lucy Jane Bledsoe "Preface" Spain Brian Bouldrey "Pilgrim's Regress" Beijing Philip Gambone "Invading Their Space" Olympia Darieck Scott "Ride of the Centaurs" Tangier Joe Orton "Tangier Diary" California Rondo Mieczkowski "Bodies in Motion" India Adam Klein "A Desert Shade" Israel Hanns Ebensten "First Night in the Promised Land" Berlin and beyond Edmund White "Shopping" Central Africa Cary Alan Johnson "Obi's Story" Mexico City Andrew Holleran "Sleepless in Mexico" Sacramento Michael Nava "Journey to 1971" Tobago Achim Nowak "Jungle Fever 138" Russia David Tuller "Broken Romance" Barcelona Erasmo Guerra "La Placa Reial" Indiana Michael Lowenthal "Sand Niggers and a Tallboy Bud" Paris James Baldwin "Equal in Paris" Capri and beyond Paul Monette "A One-Way Fare"

Gay Travels: A Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Lesbian writers reveal stories of their travels in these twenty literary pieces set around the world. West Africa, Kathmandu, Russia, Israel, Chile, and many other fascinating destinations form the backdrop to a rich variety of women's true adventures. Whether dealing with partnership, self-discovery, foreign political issues, or love and sex, these stories capture some illuminating facet of what it means to travel as a lesbian woman.
Audre Lorde experiences a wakening in Mexico where she finds a women's community and a love affair. "It was in Mexico that I stopped feeling invisible. In the streets, in the buses, in the markets, in the Plaza, in the particular attention within Eudora's eyes." In "Beds" Judith Barrington humorously handles the Question in hotels in France with her partner: a room with two single beds or a double? Susan Fox Rogers explores how travel can open up the traveler as she voyages to Alaska with her father and converses in ways not possible at home.
Regardless of their destination, lesbian travelers can find in this volume the perfect traveling companion.
Table of Contents Lucy Jane Bledsoe "Preface" Rebecca Brown "Foreword" Europe Barbara Wilson "Invisible" Alaska Susan Fox Rogers "Traveling with Desire and Family" Mexico Sarah Van Arsdale "Mexico" Greece Becky Shine "What I Will Never Be" Russia Sonja Franeta "Amazon Sisters on the Trans-Siberian Railroad" Kathmandu Gerry Gomez Pearlberg "Driving for the Fast and Faithful" Japan Marianne Dresser "A Queer Night in Tokyo" Mexico Audre Lorde "Zami" France Carole Maso "The American Woman in a Chinese Hat" Paraguay Sarah Grossman "Adios Paraguay" America Terri de la Pena "Beyond El Camino Real" France/Spain Judith Barrington "Beds" Guine Donna Allegra "Dancing Home a Stranger" Grenada Margaret Erhart "Marriage" America Linda Smuckler "Untitled" Egypt Evelyn White "Body and Soul" Gaza Sarah Jacobus "Some New Ideas" Mexico Nisa Donnelly "Dear Diary: We Should've Stayed Home" Chile Marianna Romo-Carmona "On Writing and Going South"

Lesbian Travels: A Literary Companion

from the Foreword by Pico Iver "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 ascent into the stars, Chaucer's wanderers to Canterbury, the tales of Orpheus and Odysseus and Hercules--commemorate both inward and outward journeys; these days, I suspect, many of us travel in part to experience pilgrimage by proxy. Most of the travelers in this volume leave home, as I have done, to partake of someone else's pilgrimage, and so to learn what animates people to undertake such sacrificial tasks; the destination of pilgrimage is pilgrimage itself."Table of Contents Pico Iyer Foreword Brian Bouldrey Preface Abigail Seymour, "Ultreya" Malcolm X, "Mecca" Alice Walker, "Looking for Zora" Alane Salierno Mason, "Holy City" Marvin Barrett, "Climbing to Christmas" Rachel Kadish, "Reparation Spoken Here?" Gretel Ehrlich, "The Road to Emei Shan" John Hanson Mitchell, "Providence Hill" Barbara Wilson , "Joshua Tree" Michael Wolfe, "When Men and Mountains Meet" Satish Kumar, "Iona" Anne Cushman, "Spiritual Discomfort" Oliver Statler, "Japanese Pilgrimage" Jennifer Lash, "Lourdes" Gary Paul Nabhan, "La Verna's Wounds"

Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Stories

Travel

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