num_pages: 496
description: National BestsellerIn Ghost Train to the Eastern Star Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe Turkey the Caucasus Central Asia the Indian Subcontinent China Japan and Siberia. In short he traverses all of Asia top to bottom and end to end. In the three decades since he first travelled this route Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed China has risen India booms Burma slowly smothers and Vietnam prospers despite the havoc unleashed upon it the last time Theroux passed through. He witnesses all this and so much more in a 25000 mile journey travelling as the locals do by train car bus and foot.His odyssey takes him from Eastern Europe still hungover from Communism through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbour Azerbaijan revels in oil-driven capitalism. As he penetrates deeper into Asias heart his encounters take on an otherworldly cast. The two chapters that follow show us Turkmenistan a profoundly isolated society at the mercy of an almost comically egotistical dictator and Uzbekistan a ruthless authoritarian state. From there he retraces his steps through India Mayanmar China and Japan providing his penetrating observations on the changes these countries have undergone.Brilliant caustic and totally addictive Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is Theroux at his very best.
language: English
title: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
publisher: McClelland & Stewart