RonaldWright.com » travel

Home and Away

webmaster — Mon, 30 Aug 1993 08:00:51 +0000

The first major collection of travel pieces from the bestselling author of Stolen Continents reveals the world to us—from Belize to Egypt—in all it’s comedy, strangeness and humanity. Home and Away is a marvellous mix of adventure and observation, antique civilizations, contemporary politics and irresistible storytelling.

Order Home and Away.
For American purchases.
Overseas buyers, please refer to Amazon.
Or, better yet, buy and order from your local, independent bookstore.

Reviews

“Superb. The ingredients of the Wright style… transform each piece
from a trip into an exploration.”
NOW Magazine

“Magic… one of Canada’s most seasoned and eloquent travellers.”
Maclean’s

“A sort of greatest hits collection… he writes a hell of a book.”
The Globe and Mail

“I’ll gladly travel with Ronald Wright wherever he goes.”
Washington Post

Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN-10: 0-141-00026-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-141-00026-8

Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico

webmaster — Mon, 11 Sep 1989 08:00:58 +0000

The Maya of Central America have been called the Greeks of the New World. In the first millennium A.D., they created the intellectually and artistically advanced civilization of the Americas. Throughout the ensuing centuries, as neighbouring empires fell in warfare and to the Spanish invasion, the Maya endured, shaken but never destroyed.

In Time Among the Maya, Ronald Wright’s journey takes him not only to the land of the Maya, but also among the five million people who speak Maya languages and preserve a Mayan identity today. His travels begin in tiny Belize, exploring the jungles and mountains of Guatemala, bloodstained by civil war, and end in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Embracing history, politics, anthropology, and literature, this book is both a fascinating travel memoir and the study of a civilization.

Order Time Among the Maya
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Overseas buyers, please refer to Amazon.
Or, better yet, buy and order from your local, independent bookstore.

Honours

A Trillium Book Award winner.

Reviews

“Time Among the Maya shows Ronald Wright to be . . . an historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures.”
Jan Morris

“Wright’s unpretentious narrative blends anthropology, archaeology, history, and politics with his own entertaining excursions and encounters, and . . . teaches us a lot about the way a culture endures.”
The New Yorker

“Marking his time with the ancient Mayan calendar, a travel writer explores the ruins and villages of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. He ‘weaves strands of popular anthropology, Guatemala’s politics of menace and odd encounters with half-assimilated Indians as though he were creating his own serape…’”
The New York Times, New and Noteworthy

Format: Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN-10: 0-805-01470-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-143-05437-5

On Fiji Islands

webmaster — Mon, 07 Jul 1986 08:00:10 +0000

As Ronald Wright observes, societies that do not eat people are fascinated by those that do—or did. Known for years as the “Cannibal Islands”, the Fiji Islands are now an archipelago of cultures that flourish despite the invasion of colonizers and the modern world. A gifted writer—acutely observant, witty, and eclectic—Wright explores the exotic islands and the reasons for Fiji’s success.

Order On Fiji Islands.
For American purchases
Overseas buyers, please refer to Amazon.
Or, better yet, buy and order from your local, independent bookstore.

Reviews

“Ronald Wright’s skills as an ethnologist, political historian, and travel writer have found an ideal outlet… an excellent book.”
The Independent

“Mr. Wright combines the expert travel writer’s techniques… with a skeptical curiosity… Persuasive and evocative prose.”
The New York Times Book Review

“An instant success, [Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru) took its place among-side older classics in the Penguin Travel Library. His new book in not only a worthy successor, but probably better.”
The Guardian

“Part travel memoir, part history and anthropology, this is a compelling story.”
Publishers Weekly

“This is a fine travel book, personal without being pretentious, open-eyed without being naive, and I’ll gladly travel with Wright wherever he goes next.”
Washington Post Book World

“Within the last 150 years, Fiji, the original “Cannibal Islands,” has been colonized and Christianized and has seen a huge importation of Indian laborers. Despite all these dramatic changes, the Fijians have retained their own land and culture. Intrigued by this unique history, anthropologist Wright traveled extensively throughout the Islands, visiting both cities bustling with Indian merchants and quiet Fijian villages in the remote interior. He vividly describes his experiences. However, this is not just a travel book but a weaving of contemporary impressions with underlying history. Wright feels that it is impossible to understand current Fijian culture and problems without a grasp of the past. The result is a compelling combination of travelogue and history book. An excellent bibliography is appended.”
Library Journal

Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN 10: 0-140-09551-9
ISBN 13: 978-0-140-09551-7

Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in Peru

webmaster — Thu, 14 Jun 1984 08:00:12 +0000

Travelling through Peru, tracing the history of the Incas from their royal cities of Cusco and Machu Picchu to their mythical origin in Lake Titicaca, Ronald Wright explores a country of contrasts—between Spanish and Indian, past and present, coastal desert and mountainous interior.

In his highly entertaining and perceptive account, Wright brings to life a complex culture, a land of ancient traditions seeking its place in the modern world. Embracing history, politics, anthropology and literature, Cut Stones and Crossroads is both a fascinating travel memoir and the study of a civilization by a writer who has won international awards as both a novelist and historian.

Order Cut Stones and Crossroads.
For American purchases
Overseas buyers, please refer to Amazon.
Or, better yet, buy and order from your local, independent bookstore.

Reviews

“There is much to praise in this excellent book.”
Washington Post

“Wright expertly outline the politics and culture of a nations struggling to come to terms with the abrupt collapse of one world and the fitful emergence of the next.”
Globe and Mail

“The book is a marvelous mixture of science and color reporting, antiquities and contemporary politics.”
Christian Science Monitor

“Ronald Wright is a superb travel writer with a vivid historical imagination… [He] describes ‘the two worlds of Peru with vigueur, enthusiasm, affection and a sad, controlled anger.”
The Times Literary Supplement

Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN-10-0-141-00026-0
ISBN-13-978-0-141-00026-8