Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India - Hardcover

MacLean, Rory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670914843 ISBN 13: 9780670914845

Publisher: Viking, 2006

Synopsis

In the 1960s hundreds of thousands of young westerners, inspired by Kerouac and the Beatles, blazed the 'hippie trail' overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu in search of adventure, enlightenment and a bit of cheap dope. Since the Summer of Love the countries that offered so much to these dreamers have confronted the full force of modernity, transformed from worlds of western fantasy to political minefields. Through a landscape of breathtaking beauty Rory MacLean retraces the path of the once well-worn trail from Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan to Pakistan, India to Nepal, meeting trail veterans and locals on his way, and relives wide-eyed adventures as he witnesses a world of extraordinary and terrifying transformation.

About this title

Review:

'A rich cacophony of views on the meaning of life . . . strewn with fascinating relics. Absorbing' -- Sunday Times

'MacLean is one of the most strikingly original and talented writers of his generation' -- Katie Hickman

'MacLean takes us through the shattered remains of Shangri-La and leaves us sombre, but enlightened' -- Tim Mackintosh-Smith

'MacLean’s prose moves elegantly from the elegiac to the ironic, from the sad to the grotesque to the comic' -- TLS

'Undaunted and unprejudiced . . . A disturbing, gripping and intensely passionate story' -- Esther Freud

'Utterly absorbing; if you read only one travel book this year, this should be it' -- Alexander Frater

MacLean is a wonderfully deft writer’ -- Sunday Telegraph

About the Author:

Rory MacLean is the author of six highly acclaimed and award-winning books. He is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and lives in Dorset with his wife and son.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0670914843
• ISBN 13: 9780670914845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304