A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad [Paperback]

Lonely Planet (Author)

Book Description

Series: Anthology | Publication Date: December 1, 2002

We've all dreamt of escaping to a House Somewhere. 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Visiting a place that turns out to have an exceptional pull on your heart and then wanting to establish some sort of residence there is not an uncommon travel experience. In fact, "home-abroad" books have become a very popular subgenre of travel literature; the movement was spearheaded by Peter Mayle's best-selling A Year in Provence (1990). From one of the most prominent travel publishers comes this exceptionally rewarding anthology of 18 book excerpts and eight original essays commissioned for inclusion here, and all the pieces share a common theme: settling down in a foreign country. Included among this collection of treasures are Chilean novelist Isabel Allende writing about Marin County in California, internationally based writer Lily Brett discussing co-op manners and protocol in New York City, and British author Simon Winchester sharing his wonderment at being the owner of a tractor on a Massachusetts farm. This heartwarming assortment, although technically qualifying as "arm-chair" reading, is more likely "get to the airport now" reading. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

…insightful and highly entertaining…a facsinating anthology representing some of our best writers.' -- Library Journal, December 2002

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740594193
• ISBN-13: 978-1740594196
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreams of Escape, December 22, 2002

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad (Paperback)

A collection of essays and stories about living in foreign countries. Books about this usually contain certain predictable themes. The writer is usually English or American, doesn't have a regular job, and the natives among whom he lives are lovable eccentrics with fractured English. It's commonly an island, or somewhere remote and warm, and when we next read about the writer he's no longer living there. (Jan Morris points out of these cliches in her or his introductory essay, "Some Thoughts from Abroad")
Some of the pieces fall into these obvious categories but one writer is Indian, one Welsh, and one South American. In three of them the foreign country is the United States. Others are set in the Philippines, Paris, Provence, Italy, Kenya, Singapore, Mexico, Ireland, Morocco, Japan, China, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and Greece. Tragedy strikes in two of them but the mood is mostly light-hearted and humorous. I enjoyed them all. They made me appreciate electricity, paved roads, and being able to turn on a faucet and drink the water.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Embracing the overseas living experience, March 6, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad (Paperback)

This compendium of travel stories provides essays by Isabel Allende, Jan Morris, and more notable travel writers and provides an unusual focus on experiences of living abroad. Essays range from the humorous to the observation of cultural differences as they provide both entertaining and enlightening autobiographies embracing the overseas living experience. A House Somewhere is perfect as a leisure literary pursuit and highly recommended for the traveler who contemplates residency in another country.