Award-winning travel writer Pico Iyer delves into the soul of one of Singapore's most iconic landmarks, The Raffles Hotel. As Singapore marks the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the British and an iconic hotel unveils a dazzling new design, best-selling author Pico Iyer explores how both can offer a fresh model for our world of crossing cultures. Drawing upon numerous stays in Raffles Hotel over thirty-five years and the fast-ascending city around it, this lifelong "global soul" finds new ways of considering not just yesterday, but tomorrow. What might Somerset Maugham write if he were watching East and West mingling around the Palm Court tonight? Why do writers gravitate towards the foreign counter-homes that are hotels? And how have Singapore and its iconic, intimate white-stucco monument evolved to meet the needs of a shifting world? Offering a seasoned observer's meditations on multicultures everywhere, Iyer—whom Outside magazine calls "arguably the world's greatest living travel writer"—draws the curtains on a personal, thoughtful and surprising look at places we too often take for granted.
Author
Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent. As an acclaimed travel writer, he began his career documenting a neglected aspect of travel—the sometimes surreal disconnect between local tradition and imported global pop culture. Since then, he has written ten books, exploring also the cultural consequences of isolation, whether writing about the exiled spiritual leaders of Tibet or the embargoed society of Cuba. Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
