A mesmerizing collection of essays that vividly recalls sojourns to mostly contentious yet fabled realms, Pico Iyer's The Half Known Life upends the conventional travel genre by offering a paradoxical investigation of paradise.

A culmination of [Iyer's] shifting focus on inner journeys and an expansion of his argument that paradise is rarely found elsewhere. But unlike his slim book of stillness, this is a return to the open road: a grand, full-scale travelogue.

In Iyer’s hands, the search for paradise, the way out of the ego, doubles as an internal journey.

Mr. Iyer’s search for paradise isn’t really about idylls at tropical resorts, though he visits some beautiful places.

This book is a mix of restlessness and the couch; it sees the author reporting on and recalling journeys through some of the world’s most divided and chaotic places...mostly in search of a bit of peace and quiet.

The latest chapter in Iyer’s...profound, ongoing conversation with the world, a numinous blend of deeply attentive travel writing, history, memoir, and reflection, chronicles his piquant quest for paradise, a concept rife with paradox.

Iyer’s narratives...brim with insights, showing how he’s not only a wide traveler but a deep reader and thinker.

With vivid imagery and sterling prose, Iyer documents his wanderings from town to temple.

For some 40 years, Pico Iyer has traveled the globe, introducing readers to some of the world's most exotic locales. In The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, he does so again, deploying his observant eye and elegant prose in search of the answer to the plaintive, provocative question, 'What kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict?'.

Iyer is much more than a sagacious travel writer. Because of his education and friendships, he’s uniquely qualified to reveal a culture through the lens of his personal experience and decades of self-exploration. No one, it seems, sees more than a travel writer with inner vision.

Iyer has written many beloved books on his expeditions around the world, and he has a gift for capturing the texture and cadence of a place and its people. His latest, which he sees as something of a capstone to his life’s work, is more than a travel memoir. He explores the idea of paradise held in different cultures and religions, making the text a spiritual journey rather than an itinerary.

Immersive and profound.