Scratching the Surface

Jeff Greenwald’s four previous books, including his best-selling Shopping for Buddhas and The Size of the World, have taken thousands of readers on journeys ranging from the ruins of Angkor to the bazaars of Iran—journeys at once sublime and provocative, spiritual and absurd. Whether ascending a miraculous escalator in a Kathmandu shopping mall or sinking, amidst tattooed yakuza, into a Japanese electric bath, Greenwald finds beauty in the details—and knits them into his vivid, quirky narratives. Here is the best of Jeff Greenwald’s short travel writing, hand-picked from two decades of open-eyed dispatches. Spanning oceans, continents, and the quantum leap from the Smith-Corona to the Cybercafé, these stories provide an illuminating, often hilarious view of our changing world, as seen through the eyes of America’s favorite cult travel writer.