Pico Iyer

"A journey through competing ideas of paradise to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world"--

"From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief. For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife Hiroko have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have...

Pico Iyer has for many years described with keen perception and exacting wit the shifting textures of faraway lands anchored on a spinning globe that mixes and matches East and West. Now he casts a philosophical eye upon this curious state of floatingness.
In the transnational village that our world has become, travel and technology fuel each other and us. As Iyer points out, "everywhere is so made up of everywhere else," and our very...

Presents insights into the life and teachings of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, discussing the Buddhist leader's thoughts on politics, science, technology, and religion and covering his efforts to spread his message around the world while unable to return to his Chinese-governed country.

One of the best travel writers now at work in the English language brings back the sights and sounds from a dozen different frontiers. A cryptic encounter in the perfumed darkness of Bali; a tour of a Bolivian prison, conducted by an enterprising inmate; a nightmarish taxi ride across southern Yemen, where the men with guns may be customs inspectors or revolutionariesthese are just three of the stops on Pico Iyers latest itinerary....

"Healing rituals are concrete acts of compassion that can guide us through our lives, helping to decrease our fear and anxiety and to increase our sensitivity and connectedness. Such rituals flourish in the messiness of life conditions. They are not about right or wrong, nor are they exclusive to any particular tradition. Rather, healing rituals are driven by thoughtful intent and engage our deepest love. When attuned to this love, you can create...

A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.

"Earns its place on the very short shelf of books on Japan that are of permanent value."—Times Literary Supplement.

"Richie is a stupendous travel writer; the book shines with bright witticisms, deft characterizations of fisherfolk, merchants, monks and wistful adolescents, and keen comparisons of Japanes and Western culture." —San Francisco Chronicle

"A learned, beautifully paced elegy."—London Review

...