Warned by a fortune-teller not to risk flying, the author – a seasoned correspondent – took to travelling by rail, road and sea. Consulting fortune-tellers and shamans wherever he went, he learnt to understand and respect older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity.

Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for a whole year, Tiziano Terzani – a vastly experienced Asia correspondent – took what he called 'the first step into an unknown world… It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary years I have ever spent: I was marked for death, and instead I was reborn.'
Travelling by foot, boat, bus, car and train, he visited Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Consulting soothsayers and shamans wherever he went, he grew to understand and respect older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity.

"Terzani is already something of a legend. He is a wonderful journalist. But he is much more than that. His book is not the self-important tale of a journalist but the progress of a modern, sceptical and emotional pilgrim – and wilful showman… part autobiography, part journey through the comforting past, the unbearable present and the unwelcoming future, and part prophecy… He has written magnificently all his life. Never better than now."
WILLIAM SHAWCROSS, 'Literary Review'

"One of the most interesting and unusual travel books I have ever read."
FIONA PITT-KETHLEY, 'Daily Telegraph'

"A great book written in the best traditions of literary journalism… profound, rich and reflective."
RYSZARD KUPUSCINSKI

Warned by a fortune-teller not to risk flying, the author – a seasoned correspondent – took to travelling by rail, road and sea. Consulting fortune-tellers and shamans wherever he went, he learnt to understand and respect older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity.

William Shawcross in the Literary Review praised Terzani for ‘his beautifully written adventure story… a voyage of self-discovery… He sees fortune-tellers, soothsayers, astrologers, chiromancers, seers, shamans, magicians, palmists, frauds, men and women of god (many gods) all over Asia and in Europe too… Almost every page and every story celebrates the mystical and the unknowable. It is a fabulous story of renewal and change… Terzani is already something of a legend. He has written magnificently all his life. Never better than now.’

Yes, the fortune-teller did save him from an air-crash in Cambodia. Looking back afterwards, Terzani reckoned that ‘I was marked for death and instead I was reborn.’