Author(s): Dave Eggers

Travel Literature

Visitants traces the extraordinary travels made by Pulitzer-nominated author Dave Eggers. For almost twenty years, Dave Eggers has been travelling widely and chronicling his interactions with the countries and people he has encountered during his journey across continents. Visitants is his first collection of travel writing, one that spans his entire career and includes pieces on Sudan, China and a dozen other destinations. The book begins at 140kph, with Eggers being driven across the deserts of Saudi Arabia by a hired driver who declares, "American, boom boom!" This opening sets the stage for the collection's vast cultural scope and ever-present sense of adventure, inquisitiveness and daring. From Saudi Arabia, Eggers takes us further on caterwauling sojourns in the likes of Cuba and Thailand, followed by brief stopovers in Croatia and Syria, and thought-provoking, meditative expositions on South Sudan, expanding on issues explored in his previous books. Globetrotters and Eggers fans alike will find a faithful companion in his unique combination of humour, humanism and empathy. Praise for Dave Eggers: "Possibly the most admired and emulated American author of his generation".
(Independent). "Among the most influential writers in the English language". (GQ). "A writer of the highest order". (San Francisco Chronicle). "One of the foremost chroniclers of contemporary America". (Mail on Sunday). "Dave Eggers is a prince among men when it comes to writing deeply felt, socially conscious books". (Vanityfair.com). Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney's, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco. He is the author of seven previous books, including The Circle, A Hologram for the King (finalist for the National Book Award 2012), Zeitoun (winner of the American Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize) and What is the What, which was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and won France's Prix Medicis. A native of Chicago, Eggers lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.