• Positive American reviews of Marius Kociejowski's previous titles, including Michael Dirda's recent praise for The Pebble Chance in The Washington Post, will increase the exposure of this work by Kociejowski, which stands to be his most accessible work to date.
• Several of the pieces involve Kociejowski's travels through Syria and other Middle Eastern nations now ravaged by war and ISIS terrorism, which he touches upon with delicacy and great empathy.
• Like William T. Vollmann, Kociejowski investigates the underbelly of regions he travels through; his perspective is ground-level, not from the privileged vantage of wealth; it often involves hitch-hiking, getting disastrously lost, and comic mishaps. The book provides a refreshing alternative to most contemporary travel narratives.
