Most Popular Books by Paul Theroux

“There are those who think that Paul Theroux is the finest travel writer working in English. This collection can only enhance that reputation.”—The New York Times Book Review Author and travel writer Paul Theroux does what no one else can: he travels to the isolated, unusual, and fascinating spots of the world, and creates an elegy to them that makes readers feel they are traveling with him. Evocative, breathtaking, intriguing, here is the armchair traveler''s guide to the sites of the world he makes us feel we know. Praise for To the Ends of the Earth “Reads like a wonderful novel.”—The Pittsburgh Press “Powerful . . . This compendium unequivocally offers insight into the mind of a foremost American fiction writer who became an accidental tourist.”—The Christian Science Monitor “Theroux is a wonderful traveling companion. . . . To the Ends of the Earth combines the best of his travel writing. . . . With him the reader shares a conversation with a sultan on a polo ground in Malaysia; hears people ‘mourn with firecrackers, scattering cherrybombs on the tombstone’ in a Chinese cemetery in Singapore; feels overdressed around nudists in Corsica; sees sandbagged houses and bombcraters left in Vietnam on a cold December day in 1973.”—The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star “Travel writing at its best . . . As you travel voyeuristically with Theroux, across the vast wastelands of interior China, the convoluted cultures of Latin America or campy seacoast towns of England, you''re struck with his slightly jaundiced eye for the overlooked but telling detail, his skeptic''s ear for the offhand but important comment.”—The Houston Post

Award-winning writer Paul Theroux takes us on a journey through small town Malaysia through the eyes of the exuberant Spencer Savage in his breathtaking novel The Consul''s File. Spencer Savage, a young American consul, is posted to Ayer Hitam, a small Malaysian town, in the 1970s. Told to close down this remote outpost in the sweltering jungle, he instead finds himself drawn to the many characters he meets among the Malays, Indians, Japanese, Chinese and the clubbable expat Brits. Through his eyes we see the rich tapestry of multi-ethnic life in post-colonial Malaysia, from adultery to murder, from ghost stories to the murky waters of diplomatic politics. It is a brilliant portrait of a vanished time, a lost landscape and scattered peoples. ''A cool and witty sequence. . . a polished and professional performance'' Guardian ''Theroux''s writing is at its most adventurous in The Consul''s File. There is no book I can compare this to: Mr Theroux''s artistry is individual, serene, yet also grainy with fierce truths'' The Times American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, My Other Life, The Collected Stories, My Secret History, The Lower River, The Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro, A Dead Hand, Millroy the Magician, The Elephanta Suite, Saint Jack, The Family Arsenal, The Mosquito Coast, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic The Great Railway Bazaar are available from Penguin.

They arrive in an English village deep in the Dorset countryside, and almost immediately sense the haunting presence of a lovely woman neither of them can name. Tension mounts as Emma receives strange commands from the spectral woman.

"Paul Theroux has spent fifty years crossing the globe, adventuring in the exotic, seeking the rich history and folklore of the far away. Now, for the first time, in his tenth travel book, Theroux explores a piece of America--the Deep South. He finds there a paradoxical place, full of incomparable music, unparalleled cuisine, and yet also some of the nation''s worst schools, housing, and unemployment rates. It''s these parts of the South, so often ignored, that have caught Theroux''s keen traveler''s eye."--

A fictionalized autobiography of a travel writer. There are descriptions of his experiences as a teacher of English in an African village, his meeting with the writer, Anthony Burgess, and his encounter with Queen Elizabeth of England.

"Theroux''s best novel in years." CHICAGO TRIBUNE MY SECRET HISTORY is Paul Theroux''s tour de force. It is the story of Andre Parent, a writer, a world traveler, a lover of every kind of woman he chances to meet in a life as varied as a man can lead. From his days as an altar boy, to his job as a teenaged lifeguard, and then as a youth caught between the attentions of a beautiful young student and an amorous older woman. And as the boy becomes a man he turns his attention to writing, which brings him fame, and a wife, who may finally bring him to know himself. But not before he sets up his most dangerous secret life, one that any man might envy, but that could cost Andre Parent the delicate balance that makes him who he is....

World''s end -- Zombies -- The imperial icehouse -- Yard sale -- Algebra -- The English adventure -- After the war -- Words are deeds -- White lies -- Clapham Junction -- The odd-job man -- Portrait of a lady -- Volunteer speaker -- The greenest island.

"Riveting...CHICAGO LOOP is an icy tale brilliantly imagined." THE BOSTON GLOBE He knifes silently through the shadows of the steamy Chicago summer night, prowling for lonely souls who need his help. The desperate come to him, answering his ads with promises of romantic evenings and possibly a future, never suspecting that they are the prey, chosen to statiate a twisted sexual desire. Parker Jagoda is also a successful businessman with a wife, a child, and a house in the suburbs--respectable, health-conscious, and polite. Nobody knows about his jagged double life, his dark, hungry obsessions. He has fooled everyone except those who gasp their last dying scream. And, of course, he has not fooled himself--which may be the only glimmer of hope left inside the darkest of hearts.... "From the Paperback edition.

This book is author''s choice of his best travel writing, harvested from half a dozen of his books. He has chosen his favourite people, his most vivid journeys, the landscapes that he treasures - some splendours, some miseries, all memorable.

World-famous photographer Maude Coffin Pratt has pointed her lens at the beautiful, obscure, and obscene, and at the private places and public parts of the famous, from Gertrude Stein to Graham Greene. When the seventy-year-old Maude rummages through her archives in preparation for a triumphant retrospective, the resurrected images unleash a flood of suppressed memories--of her extraordinary life, her celebrated subjects, and the dark, painful secret at the core of her existence.

Paul Theroux returns to the transcontinental expedition that made Great Railway Bazaar a classic of travel literature and realizes in rich, anecdotal detail how much the world has changed. Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented the modern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by train through Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothers under dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of the havoc America was unleashing on it the last time he passed through. In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux re-creates that earlier journey. His odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-over from communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbor Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism. Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, encountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad). Wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain."

In Two Stars Paul Theroux explores the significance of two of the twentieth century''s most celebrated stars Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

A writer turned Hawaiian hotel manager observes the many lives that pass through his rooms in this novel by the author of The Great Railway Bazaar. A New York Times Notable Book In this wickedly satiric romp, a down-on-his-luck writer finds escape from his life as the manager of a low-rent hotel a few blocks from the beach in Waikiki. His boss is quick to explain that the Hotel Honolulu is a multistory establishment—and the writer soon discovers just how many stories are contained in its walls. Honeymooners, vacationers, wanderers, mythomaniacs, soldiers, and families all check in. Like the Canterbury pilgrims, every guest has come in search of something, whether it’s sun, love, happiness, or objects of unnameable longing. And every guest—not to mention the staff, the owner, and the author himself—has a story. By turns hilarious, ribald, tender, and tragic, Hotel Honolulu offers a unique glimpse into the psychological landscape of an American paradise. “A sun-soaked Decameron.”—Chicago Sun-Times

''No one ever sees me write. One of the triumphs of fiction is that it is created in the dark. It leaves my house in a plain wrapper, with no bloodstains. Unlike me, my stories are whole and indestructible.'' In The Collected Stories, Paul Theroux''s canvas stretches from London to South-East Asia, from Boston to Paris, from Africa to Eastern Europe and from Moscow to the tropics in this vibrant collection. Full of suspense and the unexpected, these stories by the acclaimed author of The Old Patagonian Express and Dark Star Safari delve into the worlds of a vast spectrum of characters and display throughout a flair that shows Theroux to be a master of the form. Praise for Paul Theroux: ''A shimmering, kaleidoscopic and very entertaining collection'' Sunday Telegraph ''You close the book feeling you have read a single big narrative rather than a series of short ones . . . As a short-story writer, he makes a terrific novelist'' Sunday Times ''Theroux willingly explores the blighted territory of a failing marriage; the tangled jungle of a mad poet''s secret anti-Semitism; the belated sexual guilt of a Hindu . . . A book of many and varied pleasures; to read it is to feel alert, curious, adventurous'' Observer ''Paul Theroux''s writing is impeccable and thoughtfully entertaining . . . his artistry is individual, serene, yet also grainy with fierce truths'' The Times ''One needs energy to keep up with the extraordinary productive restlessness of Paul Theroux . . . [He is] the most gifted, most prodigal writer of his generation'' Jonathan Raban Paul Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1941 and published his first novel, Waldo, in 1967. His subsequent novels include The Family Arsenal, Picture Palace, The Mosquito Coast, O-Zone, Millroy the Magician, My Secret History, My Other Life, and, most recently, A Dead Hand. His highly acclaimed travel books include Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, Fresh Air Fiend, and Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. He divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian Islands.

Calvin Mullett of Homemakers'' Mutual Insurance is taken prisoner by Marais, a messianic white revolutionary in a tiny Central African republic. Unable to sell a policy to Marais, Calvin joins Marais'' merry band of mercenaries--until a fictious diary is stolen, and he is drawn into an explosion of violence. An audacious novel from the author of Riding the Iron Rooster.

Winner of the Stanford Dolman Lifetime Contribution to Travel Writing Award 2020 The Mosquito Coast - winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize - is a breathtaking novel about fanaticism and a futile search for utopia from bestseller Paul Theroux. Allie Fox is going to re-create the world. Abominating the cops, crooks, junkies and scavengers of modern America, he abandons civilisation and takes the family to live in the Honduran jungle. There his tortured, messianic genius keeps them alive, his hoarse tirades harrying them through a diseased and dirty Eden towards unimaginable darkness. ''Stunning. . . exciting, intelligent, meticulously realised, artful'' Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times ''An epic of paranoid obsession that swirls the reader headlong to deposit him on a black mudbank of horror'' Christopher Wordsworth, Guardian ''Magnificently stimulating and exciting'' Anthony Burgess American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, My Other Life, The Collected Stories, My Secret History, The Lower River, The Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro, A Dead Hand, Millroy the Magician, The Elephanta Suite, Saint Jack, The Consul''s File, The Family Arsenal, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic The Great Railway Bazaar are available from Penguin.

Indians, from India, outfox Fong, a Chinese grocer, in business dealings in a mythical East African country.

This beautiful collection of travel wisdom is the perfect gift for any Theroux fan, and will equally delight seasoned travelers, young adventurers, and everyone in between. Few have traveled more than Paul Theroux, and fewer have crafted the original, perceptive, and entertaining body of work that he has. The Tao of Travel is a departure for him: it''s a gift book, a gorgeously illustrated and pithy distillation of quotes about the pleasures and perils of travel by Theroux himself, as well as many other travel writers he admires, including Dervla Murphy, Graham Greene, and Bruce Chatwin. Inspired by the number of readers who have asked him for his favourite travel book, Theroux has artfully selected over 1000 quotes, both historical and contemporary, giving the reader genuine insight into what underlies the travel urge in humans. Whether it''s modes of travel or the art of packing, loneliness or the unexpected kindnesses of strangers, unusual meals in weird places or encountering danger, The Tao of Travel contains a smorgasbord of delights for any travel junkie.

" ... Collection of decidedly opinionated articles, essays, and ruminations, spanning two decades ..."--Page 4 of cover

"Remarkable... Powerful... Mesmerizing... Lyrical." Susan Cheever Welcome to the America of the 21st century. The O-Zone is a forbidding land of nuclear waste, mutants, and aliens. Except for one place that is a beautiful oasis amidst the destruction. When two aliens are shot that look suspiciously human, Hooper Allbright, disurbed by the memories of those he once loved, goes back down into the O-Zone to try to reach the people he lost, though they may be unreachable by now.... "Smart, witty, grotesque, and brutal." THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

This “interesting, insightful book” by the author of Deep South reveals “a side of Britain few visitors see” (The New York Times Book Review). After eleven years as an American living in London, the renowned travel writer Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise around the coast of Great Britain to find out what the British were really like. The result is this perceptive, hilarious record of the journey. Whether in Cornwall or Wales, Ulster or Scotland, the people he encountered along the way revealed far more of themselves than they perhaps intended to display to a stranger. Theroux captured their rich and varied conversational commentary with caustic wit and penetrating insight. “A sharp and funny descriptive writer . . . Theroux is a good companion.” —The Times (London)

Whether it is trekking through the icy Maine woods, or journeying to a remote island in the South Pacific where the first atomic bombs were detonated, Theroux serves as both camera and the eye. This collection of essays and articles is the ultimate good read for anyone fascinated by travel.

“A Vonnegut tinged absurdist satire . . . (a) tightly paced, expertly drawn comic romp” from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Mosquito Coast (LitReactor). Paul Theroux, one of the world’s most popular authors, both for his travel books and his fiction, has produced an off-beat story of 1960s weirdos unlike anything he has ever written. During the time of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Herbie Gneiss is forced to leave college to get a job. His income from the Kant-Brake toy factory, which manufactures military toys for children, keeps his chocolate-loving mother from starvation. Mr. Gibbon, a patriotic veteran of three wars, also works at Kant-Brake. When Herbie is drafted, Mr. Gibbon falls in love with Herbie’s mother and they move in together at Miss Ball’s rooming house. Since Herbie is fighting for his country, Mr. Gibbon feels that he, too, should do something for his country and convinces Miss Ball and Mrs. Gneiss to join him in the venture. They decide to rob the Mount Holly Trust Company because it is managed by a small dark man who is probably a communist. There are some complications. Combine Donald E. Westlake with Abby Hoffman, add a bit of Gore Vidal at his most vitriolic, and you will have Murder in Mount Holly. “Parodies the American political fringe at a time when flags burned, hippies protested and commies lurked everywhere . . . you’ll have little difficulty inserting today’s fringe characters into Theroux’s lampoon.” —Star Tribune “The geezer psychopath finally gets his due . . . The fun here is in how hateful the characters are.” —The New York Times Book Review

A former American consul joins the disparate members of a group of London terrorists in their murderous activities throughout the city.

Legendary travel writer Theroux drives the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland to uncover the rich, layered world behind today''s brutal headlines.

The acclaimed author recounts his epic journey across Europe and Asia in this international bestselling classic of travel literature: “Compulsive reading” (Graham Greene). In 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on a four-month journey by train from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In The Great Railway Bazaar, he records in vivid detail and penetrating insight the many fascinating incidents, adventures, and encounters of his grand, intercontinental tour. Asia''s fabled trains—the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express—are the stars of a journey that takes Theroux on a loop eastbound from London''s Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux''s signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.

For all Theroux travel writing fans and particularly the legions of lovers of Dark Star Safari and Eastern Star. Acclaimed travel writer Paul Theroux resumes the African trip recounted in his brilliant Dark Star Safari, from Cairo to Capetown down the right-hand of Africa. For ten years he longed to return Capetown, and travel up the the left-hand side to Congo. After 50 years of travel and past retirement age, this is the last trip of this kind the author will take, and this is the story his fans have been waiting for.

"DAZZLING." --Time "[THEROUX''S] WORK IS DISTINGUISHED BY A SPLENDID EYE FOR DETAIL AND THE TELLING GESTURE; a storyteller''s sense of pacing and gift for granting closure to the most subtle progression of events; and the graceful use of language. . . . We are delighted, along with Theroux, by the politeness of the Turks, amazed by the mountainous highlands in Syria, touched by the gesture of an Albanian waitress who will not let him pay for his modest meal. . . . The Pillars of Hercules [is] engrossing and enlightening from start (a damning account of tourists annoying the apes of Gibraltar) to finish (an utterly captivating visit with Paul Bowles in Tangier, worth the price of the book all by itself)." --Chicago Tribune "ENTERTAINING READING . . . WHEN YOU READ THEROUX, YOU''RE TRULY ON A TRIP." --The Boston Sunday Globe "HIS PICARESQUE NARRATIVE IS STUDDED WITH SCENES THAT STICK IN THE MIND. He looks at strangers with a novelist''s eye, and his portraits are pleasantly tinged with malice." --The Washington Post Book World "THEROUX AT HIS BEST . . . An armchair trip with Theroux is sometimes dark, but always a delight." --Playboy "AS SATISFYING AS A GLASS OF COOL WINE ON A DUSTY CALABRIAN AFTERNOON . . . With his effortless writing style, observant eye, and take-no-prisoners approach, Theroux is in top form chronicling this 18-month circuit of the Mediterranean." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In an intriguing memoir of friendship, the best-selling novelist, travel writer, and author of The Great Railway Bazaar recounts his experiences and memories as he journeyed around the world with renowned writer V. S. Naipaul. Reprint.

"This is my only story. Now that I am sixty I can tell it." He, the narrator, was a twenty-one-year-old art student traveling the world. She was a countess -- apparently cold, haughty, and inaccessible -- traveling with Haroun, her ambiguous companion. When the young man makes their acquaintance at a hotel in Sicily, he finds himself filled with unexpected lust and playing a part in something he doesn''t quite understand. Filled with Theroux''s typically effortless but devastating descriptions of people and places, The Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro is a brilliant portrayal of aging and decay, a shocking tale of sensuality in a golden age. The thrill and risk of pursuit and desire mark the accompanying stories of the sexual awakening and rites of passage of a Boston boyhood, the ruin of a writer in Africa, and the bewitchment of a retiree in Hawaii. This is Paul Theroux at his most allusive and wise, writing with a deep understanding of the frailties of men and boys.

From legendary writer Paul Theroux comes an atmospheric novel following a big-wave surfer as he confronts aging, privilege, mortality, and whose lives we choose to remember.

"A portrait of an optimist with curiosity and affection for humanity in all its forms."—The New York Times Book Review "Theroux is at the top of his game with his third collection of essays, a magisterial grouping of intimate remembrances, globe-trotting adventures, and incisive literary critiques."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Theroux''s observations are so keen and writerly skills so sharp that he butter-slices narratives with a razor-thin surgeon''s scalpel, masterfully serving up both the world''s dark underbelly and its gloriously uplifting sustenance of love, longing and wonder-lust." —Forbes Paul Theroux’s latest collection of essays applies his signature searching curiosity to a life lived as much in reading as on the road. This writerly tour-de-force features a satisfyingly varied selection of topics. Travel essays take us to Ecuador, Zimbabwe, and Hawaii, to name a few. Gems of literary criticism reveal fascinating depth in the work of Henry David Thoreau, Muriel Spark, Joseph Conrad, and Hunter Thompson. And in a series of breathtakingly personal profiles, we take a helicopter ride with Elizabeth Taylor, go diagnosing with Oliver Sacks, eavesdrop on the day-to-day life of a Manhattan dominatrix, and explore New York with Robin Williams. An extended meditation on the craft of writing binds together this wide-ranging collection, along with Theroux’s constant quest for the authentic in a person or in a place.

"Since its discovery by Magellan in 1520, Patagonia has retained its fascination as a metaphor for The Ultimate. Here Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux join forces in a literary quest for some of the instances in which these ''final capes of exile'' have affected the literary imagination. This lively and delightful curio had its origins in an entertainment the two writers gave for The Royal Geographical Society, at a time when Paul Theroux was following Bruce Chatwin''s ''In Patagonia'' with ''The Old Patagonian Express''"--Publisher''s description, p. [2] of dust jacket.

A travel book on the vast continent of Africa, from North to South of it, Dark Star Safari is book about the relationship among the British and the African natives. Paul Theroux, the writer gives also vistas and African sunsets.

"Possibly his best travel book...an observant and frequently hilarious account of a trip that took him to 51 Pacific Islands." TIME Renowned travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux has been many places in his life and tried almost everything. But this trip in and around the lands of the Pacific may be his boldest, most fascinating yet. From New Zealand''s rain forests, to crocodile-infested New Guinea, over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors, daring weather and coastlines, he travels by Kayak wherever the winds take him--and what he discovers is the world to explore and try to understand. "From the Trade Paperback edition.