Roger Willemsen entdeckte auf seinen unzähligen Reisen die Enden der Welt. Und wir dürfen dabei sein! Er entfaltete lebensklug in seinem bereits 2010 erschienenen Buch: Wo ein Ende, da ein Anfang, und umgekehrt. Dieser besondere, eloquente, schlagfertige, bedächtige, humorvolle, kluge, frech-witzige, mit vitalem und wachem Geist ausgestattete, den Menschen zugetane, nie ab- und verurteilende Freigeist und wissensgierige, sympathischste aller Streber, fehlt! Ein Buch, welches man immer wieder zur Hand nehmen kann, und sollte, um es von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite und noch einmal und kreuz und quer zu lesen: Ein Klassiker der deutschsprachigen Reiseliteratur! Ach wie gut, dass wir nicht nur dieses Buch von ihm haben, aus dem seine weise Stimme ertönt!

If done right, Oral History is easily one of my favourite genres. Since Alexievich's Nobel Prize it is now undisputably literary high art and the occasional dud in the bunch (characterised by lazy editing and writing) shouldn't distract from that. Thankfully, Craig Taylor's book is a worthy addition to the canon. From the cacophonous pool of a city of 9 Million people, he distills an eclectic mix, voices of different professions, nationalities, styles and experience that are uniquely placed to reveal hidden aspects of the metropolis. From old East Enders, City bankers, homeless people and a group of school girls, Taylor manages to drill down to authentic, revealing perspectives on a city that is notoriously hard to grasp. Insights into the night shift of merchants at the wholesale vegetable market or the specialised knowledge of a London arborist - the specifically London perspectives nonetheless reveal just as much about the sheer grandeaur of making a big city run smoothly.

As an avid train traveller myself, I started this book with a lot of goodwill banked up. Unfortunately, it still fell slightly short for me. For a self-confessed train geek, Rajesha seems to often lack enthusiasm for her chosen mode of transport and repeatedly falls into prejudices and traps when travelling through other countries. The only exception to that seems to be the section about Japan, which easily makes up a third of the book. Among the framing narrative of the train journeys, the author hides a verifiable love letter to that country, which makes for a refreshing change of paste and tone. After leaving Japan, though, it's again mostly disappointment she seems to experience. It's not Rajesh's fault, of course, that nothing more exciting happened on her trip - it just doesn't make for very exciting reading either...

In Kapuscinski's strange, genre-defying work, a choir of former courtiers whispers to him about the extravagances and eventual decline of the Ethiopian monarchy. The book sits somewhere between oral history and reportage but its strange magic is wrought through the voices of the disgraced king's servants, now in hiding and only to be met through secret doors. They describe the lavish palace, the absurd rituals and the absolute power of the king that everyone had to scrape under. Their flowery language of adoration and servitude masks hidden depths of resentment and glee. It is this contradiction, as well as the observations on possibly the last absolutist monarchy, that make this book the astonishing masterpiece it is.

Andreas Winkelmann, erfolgreicher Thrillerautor, sucht und findet gemeinsam mit dem Schauspieler Markus Knüfken den Thrill nun ganz woanders und spürt folgender Frage nach: Wo findet man in Europa noch die echten, wilden Abenteuer? Dazu begeben sie sich nach Österreich, Italien und Schweden-Lappland. Das klingt erst einmal harmlos-unexotisch. Und darum geht es auch: Nicht nur unter dem Eindruck der Einschränkungen durch die COVID-Pandemie das Reisen unter anderen Aspekten wie Nachhaltigkeit & Ehrfurcht vor der Natur zu betrachten. Somit finden sie sich auf ihren Touren fernab der weidlich touristisch genutzten Wege wieder, verbringen Nächte unter freiem Himmel, auf der Suche nach Ruhe, innerer Einkehr & Glückseligkeit, welche durch Blitz und Donner, Schnee- und Kälteeinbrüche unterbrochen werden. Serviert wird das Ganze mit praktisch-hilfreichen Tipps, nicht nur gegen unliebsam schnarchende Hüttenschläfer. Kurzum: In diesem Buch wird frenetisch die <Freiheit des Reisens> zelebriert.

Author

Scott, Alev

Alev Scott was born in London in 1987 to a Turkish mother and a British father. She studied Classics at Oxford before working in London as an assistant director in theatre and opera. In 2011 she moved to Istanbul, where she taught Latin at the Bosphorus University. Her first book, Turkish Awakening, was published in 2014. Alev writes for numerous publications, including the Guardian. Her second book, Ottoman Odyssey, was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award in 2019. Her third book is Power & the People, written with Andronike Makres.