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The Passenger

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Rome—in the series that’s “like a literary vacation” (Publishers Weekly).

If you believe recent chatter about Rome—in the media and by its residents—the city is on the verge of collapse. Each year, it slips further down the ranking of the world’s most livable cities. To the problems faced by all large capitals—hit-and-run tourism, traffic, the divide between elegant, Airbnb-dominated city centers and run-down suburbs—in recent years Rome seems to have added a list of calamities of its own: a string of failing administrations, widespread corruption, the resurgence of fascist movements, rampant crime. A seemingly hopeless situation, perfectly symbolized by the fact that Rome currently leads the world in the number of self-combusting public buses.

One might expect mass migration in the face of problems like these—yet the vast majority of Romans don’t think for a second of “betraying” their hometown, and the many newcomers who’ve populated it in recent decades resemble the natives in the profound love that binds them to the city.

The largest metropolis in Europe is a place of contradictions and opposites. We think of it as ancient, but it is profoundly modern—it was founded almost three millennia ago, but 92 per cent of its buildings have been built after 1945. To understand Rome and fix its problems, we should start considering it a normal city, not unlike Chicago or Manchester . . . just incomparably more beautiful. This volume is filled with portraits of Rome and thoughts not just on its famous past but its present and future, including:

Rome doesn’t judge you by Nicola Lagioia · The soul of the city by Matteo Nucci · 39 memos for a book about Rome by Francesco Piccolo · Plus: a guide to the sounds of Rome by Letizia Muratori; the feigned unrest and real malaise of the suburbs; the influence of the Vatican; the excessive power of real estate speculators and the rule of gangs; disillusioned trappers; football fans of every age, and much more . . . 

“A pleasure to read.” —La Repubblica

The Passenger: Rome

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Ireland—in the series that’s “like a literary vacation” (Publishers Weekly).

Ireland is a land full of charm and conflict, a country that in just a few decades has gone from being a poor, semi-theocratic society to a thriving economy free from the influence of the Catholic Church. With the 1998 peace agreements, the conflict between nationalists and unionists seemed, if not resolved, at least dormant. But Brexit—with the ambiguous position it leaves Northern Ireland in—caused old tensions to resurface, with ramifications in politics, society, culture, and sport.

Meanwhile, south of the border, epochal transformation has seen a deeply patriarchal, conservative society give space to diversity, the only country in the world to enshrine gay marriage in law through a referendum. And there’s a whole other Ireland abroad, an Irish diaspora that looks to the old country with newfound pride but doesn’t forget the ugliness it fled from.

Memory and identity intertwine with the transformations—from globalization to climate change—that are remodeling the Irish landscape, from the coastal communities under threat of disappearing along with the Irish language fishermen use to talk about the sea, inland the peat bogs, until recently important sources of energy and jobs, are being abandoned. Pieces in this collection include:

The mass is ended by Catherine Dunne and Caelainn Hogan · The Way Back by Colum McCann · A Trip to Westeros by Mark O’Connell · Plus: life on the margins of two unions and right in the middle of Brexit, making war on each other for thirty years while playing on the same national rugby team, emigrating to the great enemy or transforming the country one referendum at a time, digging peat bogs and building cottages, talking of the sea in Gaelic, and much more . . . 

“These books are so rich and engrossing that it is rewarding to read them even when one is stuck at home.” —The Times Literary Supplement

The Passenger: Ireland

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about California—in the “rich and engrossing” series for travelers and armchair travelers (Times Literary Supplement).

From the Gold Rush to Hollywood’s golden age to the rise of Silicon Valley, California has long stood as the brightest symbol of the American dream. In recent years, however, the country’s mainstream media has been declaring with increasing frequency—and thinly veiled schadenfreude—the “end of California as we know it.”

The pessimists point to rising inequality, racial tensions, and the impact of climate change as evidence that the Californian dream has been shattered. Between extreme heat, months-long droughts, devastating wildfires, and rising sea levels, looking at California is like watching the trailer for what awaits the world if we don’t act to reduce global warming. Faced with these pressures, more and more Californians are leaving the state, leading to an unprecedented decline in population that could change the cultural and political balance of power in the country at large.

That said, demographic decline and climate disasters don’t tell the whole story of one of the most dynamic and diverse states in the Union—one that continues to drive technological and political innovation and define the evolution of work, food, entertainment, and social relations. This volume offers a fascinating picture of California in all its complexity and contradictions—an attempt to understand the laboratory where much of the world’s future continues to be written—with pieces including:

Growing Uncertainty in the Central Valley by Anna Wiener • How Does It Feel to Be a Solution? by Vanessa Hua • The Burning of Paradise by Mark Arax • Plus: direct democracy and unsustainable development, the rise of the “land back” movement, the cultural renaissance of Los Angeles in defiance of rampant gentrification, and much more . . . 

“The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly

The Passenger: California

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Paris—in the “rich and engrossing” series for literary travelers (Times Literary Supplement).

Paris’s postcard image has suffered multiple blows in recent years: the November 2015 terrorist attacks, the demonstrations of the yellow vests, the riots in the suburbs, Notre-Dame in flames, record heatwaves and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, soaring living costs are forcing many Parisians to leave the city.

Yet these are not just a series of unfortunate events. They are phenomena—from increasing population density to climate change, from immigration to the repercussions of globalization and geopolitics—that all metropolises in the world must face. And in Paris, today, the mood is not one of defeat but of renewal: from the city’s ongoing environmental and urbanistic transformation to the fight by a new generation of chefs against the traditionalism of starred restaurants; from the children of immigrants who take to the streets for the right to feel French to the women determined to break the sexism and stereotypes that dominate the fashion industry. Is there anyone who seriously thinks they can teach Parisians how to make a revolution? This volume includes:

Out of the Shadows by Tash Aw · Against the Stars by Tommaso Melilli · Afraid of Being Free by Samar Yazbek · Plus: the Champs-Elysées between luxury and riots, the French Republic between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the most elegant Congolese dandies of all time, one Parisian woman you will not encounter, the city’s legendary football team that is not the PSG, and much more . . . 

“The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly

The Passenger: Paris

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Berlin—in the series that’s “like a literary vacation” (Publishers Weekly).

In 1990s Berlin, the scars of a century of war were still visible everywhere: coal stoves, crumbling buildings, desolate minimarts, not a working buzzer or elevator. To visit the city then was a hallucinatory experience, a simultaneous journey into the past and into the future.

The abandoned ruins, the hidden gems found at the flea market, the illegal basement raves are a thing of the past. The era of Berlin as a site of urban archeology is over. Almost all the damaged buildings have been repaired, squatters have been removed, the shops selling East German furniture have closed down. Without its wounds, the landscape of the city is perhaps less striking but more solid, stronger. Even the city’s inhabitants have lost some of their melancholia, their romantic and self-destructive streak: today you can even find people who come to Berlin to actually work, not just to “create” or idle their days away. Yet, Berlin remains a youthful city and retains its aura as “the capital of cool.” Its only sacrosanct principles are an uncompromising multiculturalism and the belief that its future is yet to be written. This volume of the series includes:

The Greatest Show in Town: The Resurrection of Potsdamer Platz by Peter Schneider · Berlin Suite by Cees Nooteboom · Tempelhof: A Field of Dreams by Vincenzo Latronico · Plus: the controversial reconstruction of a Prussian castle, Berlin’s most transgressive sex club and its disappearing traditional pubs, a green urban oasis, suburban neo-Nazis, North Vietnamese in the East, South Vietnamese in the West, techno everywhere and much more . . . 

“These books are so rich and engrossing that it is rewarding to read them even when one is stuck at home.” —The Times Literary Supplement

The Passenger: Berlin

Turkish culture and history is explored in the wide-ranging series that is “like a literary vacation” (Publishers Weekly).

The birth of the “New Turkey,” as the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own creation, is an exemplary story of the rise of “illiberal democracies” through the erosion of civil liberties, press freedom, and the independence of the judicial system. Turkey was a complex country long before the rise of its new sultan: Born out of the ashes of a vast multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire, Turkey has grappled through its relatively short history with the definition of its own identity. Poised between competing ideologies, secularism and piousness, a militaristic nationalism and exceptional openness to foreigners, Turkey defies easy labels and categories.

Through the voices of some of its best writers and journalists—many of them in self-imposed exile—The Passenger: Turkey tries to make sense of this fascinating, maddening country, analyzing how it got to where it is now, and finding the bright spots of hope that allow its always resourceful, often frustrated population to continue living, and thriving.

In this volume:The Big Dig by Elif Batuman A Story of Dust and Light by Burhan Sönmez An Author Recommends by Elif Shafak Plus: the thirty-year coup and the dam that is washing away 12,000 years of history, and more.

The Passenger: Turkey

An in-depth look at Brazilian culture in the series that collects the best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from around the world.

In the second half of the twentieth century Brazil made extraordinary contributions to music, sport, architecture. From bossa nova to acrobatic soccer to the daring architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, the country seemed to embody a new, original vision of modernity, at once fluid, agile, and complex.

Seen from abroad, the victory of the far right in the 2018 elections was a rude awakening that suddenly turned the Brazilian dream into a nightmare. For locals, however, illusions had started fading long ago, amid paralyzing corruption, environmental degradation, racial discrimination, and escalating violence. Luckily Brazilians have not lost their desire to fight, minorities are still determined to assert their rights, and, now that the glorious past is dead and buried, a desire to rebuild for the future is emerging. Today the challenge of telling the story of this extraordinary country consists in finding its enduring vitality amid the apparent melancholy.

“The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly

“Much more than a travel guide, The Passenger is indispensable for any reader who is curious about the world.” —Il Venerdì

In this volume: Order and Progress? by Jon Lee Anderson Funk, Pride and Prejudice by Alberto Riva On the River, I Was King by Eliane Brum Also: the road that dissects the Amazon; the TV tycoon who shaped Brazilian history; the neo-Pentecostal community that is winning the hearts (and wallets) of Brazilians; politicized samba dancers, idealist gangsters, and much more . . .

The Passenger: Brazil

A journey into today’s India through essays, photography, and more, shortlisted for a 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award.

Since its earliest interactions with the West, India has been the object of a gross misinterpretation, a vague association with ideas of peace, spiritualism, the magic of the fakirs. Constantly reframed and mythologized by Westerners fleeing their supposedly rationalist societies, India continues to fascinate with its millennia-old history, shrines on every street corner, ancient beliefs and rituals, and unique linguistic and cultural diversity.

Today this picture is mixed with that of a society changing at a frenetic pace and at the forefront of the digital revolution—a “shining India” of dynamic, fast-expanding megalopolises. Yet these success stories coexist with the daily plight of the large section of its population without access to drinking water or a toilet, with a rural economy (still employing the majority of its over 1.3 billion inhabitants) that depends on monsoons for irrigation and is threatened by climate change. The greatest democratic experiment ever attempted, India remains plagued by one of the vilest forms of class and racial discrimination, the caste system, exacerbated by the Hindu nationalist regime.

All things considered, though, it’s hard to find a more dynamic and optimistic country or, as Arundhati Roy puts it, “a more irredeemably chaotic people.” This volume aims to depict India’s chaos and its contradictions, its terror and its joy, from the struggle of the Kashmiris to that of non-believers (hated by all religious sects), from the dances of the hijra in Koovagam to the success of the wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a symbol of the women who seek to free themselves from the oppressive patriarchal mores. Despite the obstacles and steps back, India continues its journey on the long path toward freedom and toward ending poverty for some of the world’s most destitute. Included are writings on:

Caste: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Arundhati Roy · The Invention of Hindu Nationalism by Prem Shankar Jha · No Country for Women by Tishani Doshi · Plus: the grand ambitions of the world’s most underrated space program, Bollywood’s obsession with Swiss landscapes, an ode to Bengali food, eagerly awaiting the monsoon, the wrestler tackling stereotypes and much more . . . 

“These books are so rich and engrossing that it is rewarding to read them even when one is stuck at home.” —The Times Literary Supplement

The Passenger: India

A vivid portrait of life in Greece, in the series that collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

Many have impressions and opinions about Greece based on superficial headlines or pop culture stereotypes. This volume of The Passenger offers instead a wide-ranging, thoughtful, and lively picture of the country in all its nuance and diversity—its people, its problems, its art, its athletes, and much, much more.

“The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly

In this volume:Once Upon A Time: The Greek Taverna by Petros Markaris Land of Migration by Matteo Nucci The Lost Generation by Christos Ikonomou Plus: Yorgos Lanthimos and the “Weird Wave” of Greek cinema, the island where people forget to die, the NBA’s most valuable player, the mayor who balanced the books but enraged the nationalists, abandoned buildings, oligarchs on the rise, the rebellious rhythm of rebetiko and much more . . .

The Passenger: Greece

Explore Japanese society in the lively series that collects the best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from around the world.

Visitors from the West look with amazement, and sometimes concern, at Japan’s social structures and unique, complex culture industry; the gigantic scale of its tech corporations and the resilience of its traditions; the extraordinary diversity of the subcultures that flourish in its “post-human” megacities. The country nonetheless remains an intricate and complicated jigsaw puzzle, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for stories, reflections, and reportage. Caught between an aging population and extreme post-modernity, Japan is an ideal observation point from which to understand our era and the one to come. The subjects in this volume form a portrait of the country that ranges from the Japanese veneration of the dead to the Tokyo music scene, from urban alienation to cinema, from sumo to toxic masculinity.

“The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly

In this volume:Ghosts of the Tsumani by Richard Lloyd Parry Living in Shimokitazawa by Yoshimoto Banana Why Japan Has Avoided Populism by Ian Buruma Plus: a Shinto sect in the shadow of power, fleeing debts by disappearing into thin air, the decline of sexual desire, the obsession with American blues, the strongest sumo wrestler of all time (who isn’t Japanese), the revenge of the Ainu and much more . . .