White Sands Experiences from the Outside World
- 6 Apr 2017
- 9781782117421
- £10.99
- 256 pp
- 129×198mm
- 30 Jun 2016
- 9781782117414
- £7.99
- 240 pp
In a few words
In the spirit of Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, his bestselling book about travel, Geoff Dyer is back on the road.
In a few words
In the spirit of Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, his critically acclaimed collection of travel writing, Geoff Dyer is back on the road
Brilliant . . . Dyer's eyes miss nothing
Peter Conrad
ObserverAn examination of some of the most fundamental questions of life . . . Inspiring and informing
Reading Dyer is akin to the sudden elation and optimism you feel when you make a new friend, someone as silly as you but cleverer too, in whose company you know you will travel through life more vagrantly, intensely, joyfully
Quite possibly the best living writer in Britain
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SHORTLISTED FOR STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR
From a trip to The Lightning Field in New Mexico, to chasing Gauguin’s ghost in French Polynesia, White Sands is a creative exploration of why we travel.
Episodic, wide-ranging and funny, Geoff Dyer blends travel writing, essay, criticism and fiction with a smart and cantankerous wit that is unmatched. From one of the most original writers in Britain, this is a book for armchair travellers and procrastinating philosophers everywhere.
More about
the book
‘It seems certain that the apple in Eden grew on the tree of knowledge of elsewhere. Up until that point Adam and Eve were happy where they were. Then they ate the apple and it was slightly disappointing to them and they started to wonder if maybe there were other kinds of apples elsewhere, if there were crunchier and crisper and sweeter apples to be had from somewhere else. They began to think that there might be a funner place, where the food was better. They even began to suspect that paradise itself might be somewhere else . . . From there, to keep the history of the world as brief as possible, it is only a small step to package cruises and supermarkets stocking the full spectrum of exotic fruit.’
Taking the form of ten journeys, White Sands is an exploration of why we travel from perhaps Britain’s greatest globetrotter. Episodic, wide-ranging, funny and smart, it marks a return to the subject of Dyer’s Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, albeit with the wisdom of age.
From viewing a lightning field in the Mexican desert by night, to chasing Gauguin’s ghost in French Polynesia, from falling in love with a tour guide in the Forbidden City of Beijing to tracking down the house of a childhood idol in LA, Dyer pursues all permutations of the peak experience, explores the voyage through time, and plumbs the effects of distance. In his trademark style he blends travel writing, essay, criticism and fiction with a smart and cantankerous wit that is unmatched. This is a book for armchair travellers and procrastinating philosophers everywhere.
Even Chekhov might have envied Geoff Dyer's talent . . . Almost perfect
Jan Morris
Spectator[A] disregard for genre boundaries is a hallmark of his work, along with erudition, a brilliant use of language and irreverent humour . . . The nearest thing to White Sands in Dyer's back catalogue is Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It
Surpassingly eloquent . . . there's no other writer quite like Dyer
Illuminating . . . A collection unified by a focus on our impermanence. Why are we here? Dyer asks. With his customary elegance of thought, he sees that our attempts to transcend our situation through travel and art are motivated by our awareness of our final destination: "We are here to go somewhere else".
Luke Brown
Financial TimesGeoff Dyer is a true original - one of those rare voices in contemporary literature that never ceases to surprise, disturb and delight
William Boyd
A national treasure
Zadie Smith
Among the most original and talented writers of his generation
