When Jose Saramago decided some twenty years ago to write a book about Portugal, his only desire was that it be unlike any other book on the subject, and in this he certainly has succeeded. Recording the events and observations of a journey across the length and breadth of the country he loves dearly, Saramago brings Portugal to life as only a writer of his brilliance can. Forfeiting sources of information such as tourist guides and road maps, he...

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved--to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician--had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle...

"On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau's path through the Cape's outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown's fingertip. This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once...

"Legendary travel writer Paul Theroux fearlessly drives the entire length of the US-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland, on the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines."--Provided by publisher.

Shadow of the Silk Road records a journey along the greatest land route on earth. Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran and into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron covers some seven thousand miles in eight months. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart and camel, he travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people, to the ancient...

Terra Incognita is a meditation on the landscape, myths and history of one of the remotest parts of the globe, as well as an encounter with the people who inhabit this region - living in close confinement despite the surrounding acres of white space - and the mechanics of day-to-day life in extraordinary conditions. Through Sara Wheeler, the Antarctic is revealed, in all its seductive mystery.

Levison Wood's journey was 4,250 miles long, and he walked every step of the way, camping in the wild, foraging for food, and fending for himself against multiple dangers. He passed through rainforest, savannah, swamp, desert, and lush delta oases and crossed seven very different countries. No one had ever made this journey on foot. In this detailed, thoughtful, inspiring and dramatic book is recounted Levison Wood's walk the length of the Nile, during...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic chronicle of a “terribly misguided and terribly funny” (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body
 
“The best way of escaping into nature.”—The New York Times 
 
Back in America after...

Extrait: "Les lecteurs qui ont bien voulu m'accompagner, l'an dernier, dans mon excursion à Vienne, se rappellent peut-être la route que nous primes pour nous rendre de Paris dans la capitale de l'Autriche. Après avoir traversé le Mont-Genis, nous touchâmes barre à Venise et à Trieste, puis nous arrivâmes par le Semmering — ce Mont-Genis autrichien — sur les bords du Danube qui n'est malheureusement bleu que dans le titre de la valse de...