Fortune-Tellers, Travel and Life

I have a weakness for travel narratives. Eighty-plus percent of what I read can be classified in this particular genre, ranging from William Least-Heat Moon to Robyn Davidson to Paul Theroux. And many many more. Most are pretty good, a few more than I'd like to admit are pretty mediocre.  And then there are the exceptional ones - the ones that are fully engaging, that take the reader in new directions (not just geographically), and one's that inspire or nurture the spirit of travel and of life. 

Tizian Terzani's "A Fortune-Teller Told Me" falls into this exceptional category. The author, an Italian journalist based in Southeast Asia, and with journalistic curiosity, visited a fortune-teller in Macao. The prophecy, if you want to call it that, was that something terrible was going to happen to the author in the coming year and he must not fly. A difficult proposition for an Italian journalist in Southeast Asia for sure.  And one, before the start of the year, Tizian decided to follow. 

The narrative following Tizian as he moved about Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Burma and then on to Europe via China, Mongolia and Russia, all the time consulting with other fortune-tellers - some close to the mark, others without a clue. Wanderlust, journalistic fervor, spiritual encounters of all kinds, and an overall sense of fascination fill the book and leave the reader to ponder the world that we see and the world that may be just beyond our vision and experience.

"Think of how many wonderful people we meet without realizing it, of how many  beautiful  things we pass every day on the way home without realizing them. It always requires the right occasion, a particular event, a person who stops you and draws your attention to this or that."