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Pilgrimage: Tales from the Open Road
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About the BookThere is no frigate like this book to take the reader away to distant lands. In Penang, in Athens, in rural Germany and in the Himalayas, these non-fiction narratives always involve people as well as landscapes; giving the reader a strong sense of place and customs as well as striking insights into human behavior. Always traveling on the cheap, Pfister uses a variety of conveyances––trains, bicycles, rickshaws. He visits Southeast Asia where he takes part in the Buddhist festival of "Hungry Ghosts"––spirit creatures reincarnated because of unholy greed-whose unsettling presence forces sinners to face up to their own desires. In a farming village in rural Germany, he shares the painful, yet loving lives of a very special family. Pfister introduces us to a wide variety of interesting characters. Reviews"Patrick Pfister is an awfully good writer; Pilgrimage is a real tour de force and deserves a wide readership."––Jack Beatty, The Atlantic Monthly "Pfister's arrestingly low-key style distinguishes these collected vignettes of chance encounters and stormy travails during journeys to far-flung locales . . ."––Booklist "Pfister paints a picture of the World that is eerie and beautiful, comic and totally idiosyncratic. His travels are peopled by a truly odd collection of misfits and saints."––Inner Journeys |
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