Asian Absences

Searching for Shangri-La
By Wolfgang Buscher

Buscher passes through a feverish India and an abandoned hospital for lepers, undertakes a hallucinogenic mountain pilgrimage with shamans in Kathmandu, embarks on an industrial oil tanker to Singapore, and examining the beautifully odd curiosities of Tokyo's metropolis, before seeking the mythic Shangri-La.

Wolfgang Buscher vividly captures the conflicting emotional and intellectual responses of a stranger in distant lands, evoking both the exotic wonder and threatening otherness of unfamiliar cultures that repeatedly challenge mythic assumptions about the East.

Asian Absences is a thoughtful and subtle investigation into the perils and rewards of leaving one's comfort zone and entering unknown spaces. By evading simple conclusions, Buscher impels the reader on a journey of enlightenment that is both troubling and beautiful.

Wolfgang Buscher is a journalist for Die Welt. Among his many prizes is the Seume Literaturpreis.

Translated by Simon Pare