Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His renowned travel books include Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania.

His new book is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar.

Anna Metcalfe of the Financial Times put a few questions to the author, including:

What book changed your life?

Richard Halliburton's The Royal Road to Romance, which I read in my early teens. He bathed by moonlight in the Taj Mahal pool and swam the Panama Canal. It didn't change my life so much as it gave me the direction I needed.

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What are you most proud of writing?

The Mosquito Coast. It was banned in South Africa but Mandela's government put it on the school syllabus.

Read the complete Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue