The World, the World

From Graham Greene and Anthony Burgess to Pico Iyer, the world of letters heaps praise on Norman Lewis's deserving head, while the general readership discovers his books with amazement and joy. His memoir begins on a train to Rome in 1937, and continues, unabatedly readable for the next 60 years. He travels to remote nooks in Cuba, Guatemala, Vietnam, Burma, India, and Spain, and recalls war experiences, his publishing history with Jonathan Cape, and encounters with Ian Fleming and Ernest Hemingway. He writes with the finesse of a master, his observant eye and finely crafted prose providing the humor, detail, and absorbing narrative that all travel writers aspire to but few attain.