Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip, Peter Hessler
Peter Hessler's third book on modern China is arguably the best: a three-part foray into territory few travellers ever reach. The first section covers his early experiences as a driver in a land where cars are a novelty – as are traffic regulations. His wild and surreal adventures lead him to a semi-abandoned village near Beijing, where he takes up residence. The second part deals with relationships in that hamlet – and the revealing insights they bring. Finally he sets off for distant realms, curious cities that are as mysterious to us in the west as Cathay was to medieval scholars. The city names may be unknown, but their products are familiar: Wenzhou makes 70% of the world's lighters, while Datang knits an astonishing third of all socks. This ought to be read by those who want to do business in the east, but anyone will enjoy it. Informative, amusing and endlessly entertaining, it's my book of this year.
Canongate Books, £14.99
Along the Enchanted Way: A Story of Love and Life in Romania, William Blacker
William Blacker's book ought to be wrapped in a tweed jacket – it's such a deeply English and romantic epistle to a bucolic European past, it could only have been done by an Anglo-Saxon toff. Don't let that deter you, however: Blacker is a gifted writer with a sympathetic eye for detail and nature, a disarming frankness about himself and a cheery inability to escape a foreign culture. Having driven to Romania soon after the fall of Ceausescu, he finds himself adopted by a peasant farming community, where he slots in nicely – until a Gypsy girl enchants him. Then the story truly takes off with a brace of delicately understated love affairs that lead to a child and a lasting attachment to a magical land.
John Murray, £8.99
• Read William Blacker in Romania
Landfalls, Tim Mackintosh Smith
Tim Mackintosh Smith is out of a similar mould to William Blacker, but in his case the subject is 13th-century Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, probably the most travelled man in history – far exceeding Marco Polo both in distance and powers of recollection. This is the third, and final, book in what is Mackintosh Smith's gargantuan task of following in Battuta's footsteps. It takes us from east Africa, through India, the Maldives and China, before wending its way back westwards. The style will be familiar to the author's many fans: digressive and endlessly adorned, with an alert ear for the shocking pun. If there is anyone out there who thinks that the world has all been done, Mackintosh Smith makes a great antidote.
John Murray, £25
