Walking Backwards
Описание книги
From Istanbul to New Delhi to Boulder, Colorado, through Venice, Paris, Rome, and points between. As travellers, we are always walking backwards, forever on the verge of stepping into the unknown, never knowing what waits around the next corner. You could be lost, forget your passport, fall ill. You could be served a bowl of food and not know whether it’s animal, vegetable, or mineral. Even flushing the toilet can be an adventure. You are a child again, innocent and hoping for the best, forced to trust strangers. Quite often this works out. Not always. Walking Backwards is a return to 10 cities and what happened there. Whether inadvertently smuggling cloth into Istanbul, reading poetry in New Delhi to a crowd expecting a world-famous pianist, or wandering endlessly through Mantua searching for a non-existent hotel on a street that’s fallen off the map, Mark Frutkin is a master at rediscovering the magic at the heart of all travel.
Отрывок из книги
Backwards
Mark Frutkin
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His eyes slide from mine as he leans forward to take the passport hovering in my hand before him. But before he grasps it, he notices the cover, which I have turned so he can read it. PASSPORT — United States of America, with its rampant eagle crest, all printed in gold. Behind me, the two Michaels proffer their own documents like supplicants, one on each side of me, but slightly behind, our three passports resembling a meagre flock of three eagles flying in formation. On seeing that we are Americans, instantly, without a moment’s hesitation, he waves us on, not even taking my passport to check it. Not believing our good luck, but trying not to look overly elated, we three scurry to the next official who sits at his wicket automatically and mindlessly stamping all passports presented to him, including ours.
And with that, we tumble out of the train station into the raw January dusk, snow still falling heavily. Instantly, a jinn arising out of a smoking lamp, Ahmed appears at our sides. “Come. Follow me,” he says.
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