A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad

3.4/5 ( ratings)

In this collection some of the finest names in contemporary travel writing reveal the perils and pleasures of exchanging the familiar for the foreign.

Isabel Allende discovers love and paradise in California, Pico Iyer finds home in Japan amidst the alien and indecipherable, and a dank barge on the Seine opens up a new side of Paris for Mort Rosenblum.

Revealing the flip side to the dream, relocating to the juicy heart of New York proves fiery for Lily Brett, Chris Stewart is frightened for his life in Andalucia, and the plumbing in William Dalrymple’s rooftop Delhi flat is held to ransom by his water-conserving landlady.

Original Stories by:
Isabel Allende, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jan Morris, Rolf Potts, Mort Rosenbaum, Jeffrey Taylor, Errol Trzebinski, Simon Winchester.

Selected writings by:
Vida Adamoli, Lily Brett, Tony Cohan, William Dalrymple, Amitav Ghos, Carla Grissmann, James Hamilton-Paterson, Annie Hawes, Peter Hesller, Pico Iyer, Alex Kerr, Frances Mayes, Peter Mayle, Tim Parks, Chris Stewart, Emma Tennant, Paul Theroux, Nial Williams and Christine Breen.

Home thoughts from Abroad --
A Home in Paradise --
The Alien Home, From the Global Soul --
Tiwarik and Kansulay, from Playiing with Water --
February, from A Year in Provence --
Festina Tarde , from Under the Tuscan Sun --
from City of Djinns --
from O come Ye Back to Ireland --
Digging Mr Benny's Dead Uncle --
Troppo Gentile, from Italian Neighbours --
At Home on the Seine --
Tenmangu, from Lost Japan --
from Dinner of Herbs --
A Co-op Building, from New york --
A House in the Casbah --
The Visit, from On Mexican Time --
The Year Brunetto II Piccolo Fell in Love, from La Bella Vita --
from Extra Virgin --
Waiting for juan, from a Parrot in the Pepper Tree --
Lataifa, From In an Antique Land --
Aloft in Paris --
Chinese Life, from River Town --
A Love-Scene after Work: Writing in the Tropics, from Sunrise with Seamonsters --
from A House in Corfu --
Barefoot at Shanzu --
Coming Home in Massachusetts