From Booklist
Visiting a place that turns out to have an exceptional pull on your heart and then wanting to establish some sort of residence there is not an uncommon travel experience. In fact, "home-abroad" books have become a very popular subgenre of travel literature; the movement was spearheaded by Peter Mayle's best-selling A Year in Provence (1990). From one of the most prominent travel publishers comes this exceptionally rewarding anthology of 18 book excerpts and eight original essays commissioned for inclusion here, and all the pieces share a common theme: settling down in a foreign country. Included among this collection of treasures are Chilean novelist Isabel Allende writing about Marin County in California, internationally based writer Lily Brett discussing co-op manners and protocol in New York City, and British author Simon Winchester sharing his wonderment at being the owner of a tractor on a Massachusetts farm. This heartwarming assortment, although technically qualifying as "arm-chair" reading, is more likely "get to the airport now" reading. Brad Hooper
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Booklist
"From one of the most prominent travel publishers comes this exceptionally rewarding anthology... a heartwarming assortment..."

Library Journal
"A fascinating anthology representing some of our best writers. Insightful and highly entertaining, this is recommended...."

Conde Nast Traveler
"The essays gathered in this collection demonstrate that even the most restless wanderers put down roots."

Book Description
In this collection some of the finest names in contemporary travel writing reveal the perils and pleasures of exchanging the familiar for the foreign.Isabel Allende discovers love and paradise in California, Pico Iyer finds home in Japan amidst the alien and indecipherable, and a dank barge on the Seine opens up a new side of Paris for Mort Rosenblum. Revealing the flip side to the dream, relocating to the juicy heart of New York proves fiery for Lily Brett, Chris Stewart is frightened for his life in Andalucia, and the plumbing in William Dalrymple’s rooftop Delhi flat is held to ransom by his water-conserving landlady.Original Stories by:
Isabel Allende, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jan Morris, Rolf Potts, Mort Rosenbaum, Jeffrey Taylor, Errol Trzebinski, Simon Winchester.Selected writings by:
Vida Adamoli, Lily Brett, Tony Cohan, William Dalrymple, Amitav Ghos, Carla Grissmann, James Hamilton-Paterson, Annie Hawes, Peter Hesller, Pico Iyer, Alex Kerr, Frances Mayes, Peter Mayle, Tim Parks, Chris Stewart, Emma Tennant, Paul Theroux, Nial Williams and Christine Breen.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Welcome to the next step in travel writing, where a wanderer plants roots and a foreign destination becomes home. Lonely Planet Publications, revered for its in-depth guides to places far and away, succeeds in breathing life into the dots on a map with what it calls the "literature of staying put." This anthology of renowned authors -- including Isabel Allende, Paul Theroux, and Peter Mayle -- reads like a love letter to the globe's most exotic places. Whether the subject is the redwood shores of Northern California or a remote shrine in Japan, the theme of finding oneself in a faraway land and building a life there in spite of cultural, linguistic, and personal challenges makes for fascinating and enlightening reading.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

￯﾿ﾽI know well the delectable thrill of moving into a new house somewhere altogether else, in somebody else￯﾿ﾽs country, where the climate is different, the food is different, the light is different, where the mundane preoccupations of life at home don￯﾿ﾽt seem to apply and it is even fun to go shopping. --Jan Morris

We￯﾿ﾽve all dreamt of escaping to a House Somewhere. In this collection some of the finest names in contemporary travel writing reveal the perils and pleasures of exchanging the familiar for the foreign.

Isabel Allende discovers love and paradise in California, Pico Iyer finds home in Japan amidst the alien and indecipherable, and a dank barge on the Seine opens up a new side of Paris for Mort Rosenblum.

Revealing the flip side to the dream, relocating to the juicy heart of New York proves fiery for Lily Brett, Chris Stewart is frightened for his life in Andalucia, and the plumbing in William Dalrymple￯﾿ﾽs rooftop Delhi flat is held to ransom by his water-conserving landlady.

Original Stories by:
Isabel Allende, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jan Morris, Rolf Potts, Mort Rosenbaum, Jeffrey Taylor, Errol Trzebinski, Simon Winchester.

Selected writings by:
Vida Adamoli, Lily Brett, Tony Cohan, William Dalrymple, Amitav Ghos, Carla Grissmann, James Hamilton-Paterson, Annie Hawes, Peter Hesller, Pico Iyer, Alex Kerr, Frances Mayes, Peter Mayle, Tim Parks, Chris Stewart, Emma Tennant, Paul Theroux, Nial Williams and Christine Breen.