THE BOOK TRAVELER

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JOURNEY TO PORTUGAL: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture by Jose Saramago
Published by Harcourt
452 pages Hardcover
US$30

No Portuguese writer has ever written about Portugal in this vein, approaching the land and its people as if they were entirely new to him. Jose Saramago's description of people and places resound with an underlying determination to bring his readers to that very spot in the countryside to relive the momentary pleasure (or displeasure) he is feeling. His words spill across the pages like a painter's brush on a canvas, "To the right lies an open valley, while below there's a row of beehives with nearly indiscernible amid the mists, men working in the distance."

This is not intended to be a guidebook to Portugal. It is a vivid portrayal of the cultural icons that abound in the author's country of birth and a deeply engaging book filled with centuries-old history. The 1998 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature has achieved his ultimate dream to write a book with a difference, "a book capable of offering a fresh way of looking, a new way of feeling."

SORCERER'S APRENTICE by Tahir Shah
Published by Arcade
323 pages Hardcover
US$25.95

Thanks to Tahir Shah's longing for 'adventure, discovery and wonder' he travels to India in search of the man who influenced his childhood flirtation with magic, Hafiz Jan, in hopes of becoming a magician.

Hafiz Jan refers him to his mentor, Hakim Feroze in Calcutta, and that is when his strange and fascinating journey of discovery begins. The author/sorcerer's apprentice is a hilarious storyteller whose escapades fuel his thirst for knowledge, yet reminds us that India's sea of humanity live under some excruciating circumstances that still exist to this day.

Travel is an education of cultures and this book never stops informing the reader about the local customs that have been passed down from generation to generation. Hospitality is amazingly generous, especially in gastronomic terms - "By the fourth night, the platters of pilau were so heavy that Hafiz Jan's sons could barely lift them. Beneath the great mounds of rice were buried whole marinated pigeons, an Afghan delicacy. On the fifth evening an entire roasted sheep was trundled in, still attached to the spit. On the sixth day my concern had almost reached fever pitch. Hafiz Jan's wife was now cooking day and night."

Shah's compulsion to share his understanding of the east and west probably stems from his noble Afghan ancestry, although he grew up in England and still resides there.

We wholeheartedly agree with the author that India is incomparable, "When it comes to bewilderment, India has its own scale. No other country on Earth can mystify a foreigner so utterly." This is a reader's handbook for 'travel with a twist' - read, discover and enjoy!