Like one of the other people who wrote in, I too have not yet read Goodnight, Mister Lenin. I have just finished reading A Fortune Teller Told Me and it's been the first book in a long time where I wanted to read every single word rather than just scan through. Tiziano writes as if he is speaking, and this, together with his travels and constant search for answers which lead him on a colourful and fascinating journey, left me looking for more of his books. Mr Terzani you're a gem, thank you for sharing.

OK so I haven't ready the Lenin book, but I just finished, A Fortune-Teller Told Me also by Terzani and I would call it my favorite book! On a recent trip to Singapore and Seoul, I was lucky enough to find the book in a Singapore bookstore. It was quite a wonderful surprise as I had been so deeply saddened by the Westernization of the world. I had practiced many Eastern cultural behaviors only to find them worshipping anything Western. I found myself very aligned with Terzani's thinking and longed to go to the same "fortune tellers" as he did. I traveled to each spot with TT and fell in love with every adventure, even the air-conditioned island he was so happy to leave. This is a must read book and I plan to read everything else I can find by TT. I wonder if he ever thinks of coming to the US, although I don't blame him if he doesn't. Brilliant in every way!!!!

I have never read a book that I have been unable to put down, and upon finishing - picked up a pencil, flipped back to page 1 and started again, underlining as I went. I have read the book 4 times now. Terzani is a brilliant and extreemly knowlegable writer who has embraced his love for SE Asia and put it to words so brilliantly. For me, a young Italian traveller living in Bangkok - this book is unsurpassable for ANYBODY who has visited South East Asia and fallen in love with it's charming and heart-warming character (excluding Singapore - Of course!). PLEASE contact me anybody is able to get copies of China: Behind the Forbidden Door, or Goodnight Mr Lenin.

"A Fortune Teller Told Me" sat on my bookshelf for nearly a year. I had started it once when I had run out of reading material but did not find it terribly compelling until I picked it up again recently.
Written by an Italian journalist who has lived in Asia for thirty or more years, it is the story of his travels in Asia during the year when he did not fly because a Hong Kong fortune teller told him that it would be dangerous for him to do so. His travels take him to Singapore, and through Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and other countries I haven't read about yet, because I haven't finished the book. Tarzani,the author, is clearly someone at home on the road. He has the advantage of speaking Chinese, which clearly makes it easier for him to make connections with local people. During his travels he seeks out fortune tellers, but what is most interesting are his observations of the changes taking place in Asia at the time. He makes several references to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as a reaction to globalization and growing materialism.

He also observes the effects of the Chinese diaspora in Asia: how in many of the southeast asian countries the first and second and third generation Chinese control the economy. He seems to indirectly blame this element of the populace for the increased materialism and the loss of local values and customs.

One of the drawbacks of his point of view is that he embodies the stereotype of the macho Italian and seems unenlighted about the possibility that women could actually read his book. This comes to light as he despairs about the increased modernization of the world. After computers, what next? Will we dispense with women? Once we no longer need to think for ourselves, will we no longer need to procreate? he seems to say.

The book is food for thought and a wonderful travelogue, except when comments like that slip out.

As this is my first post living in Asia, I found this book to be a delightful introduction to some of what this region is "really" like. Tiziano Terzani is an Italian-born journalist for the German Der Spiegel and in 1976 while in Hong Kong, is taken to a fortune-teller (almost as a joke) who told him that if he flew in 1993 it could prove fatal. Not being one for superstitions, he nonetheless decided to spend the whole of 1993 traveling Asia in every way save air (train, bus, car, on foot, and elephant!). He not only does this, but he dedicates his writing and research during that year (1993) to finding the "truest" fortuneteller in any country who will accurately tell his fortune (and divine his past correctly). His work puts him conveniently in a number of countries where he is able to visit seers, clairvoyants, astrologists, soothsayers, and psychics. He covers the elections in Burma, a road opening in Thailand and China, and even manages to take a trans-Siberian trip from Cambodia and Vietnam through China and Mongolia and off through Russia.

Most people, in most countries, are somewhat fascinated by the accuracy of a fortune-teller - and this is the hook that Terzani uses to draw us in. Will the prophesy prove true (a plane of journalists does go down in Asia at one point early in the given year (a plane he would have been on) but no one dies.)? How accurate are fortune-tellers? The details of his many visits to these many people, and his descriptions of the peoples and places he is seeing as a result of not flying are all fascinating. One of the themes he continually returns to is the modernization of Asia and to some extent how that pains him (AIDS in Burma, cold-hearted money mongers in China, completely non-spiritual Mongolians). He is not only humored by the superstitions of the region, but in some places he is somewhat grateful that these beliefs are still taken seriously. He is unhappiest in places where the modern world has pushed the relevance of some of these old shamans out of existence. It was absolutely wonderful writing and was so very Asian that I found I had a renewed interest in traveling to many of these places.

I have not read this title, but notice that his latest book (1998 in English translation) which I am reading, "A Fortune Teller Told Me - Earthbound Travels in Asia", is not available in Amazon.com (published by Flamingo Press). I highly recommend "A Fortune Teller" -- witty, insightful travelogue of a middle-aged, wry journalist searching for spiritualism in Asia amid the new concrete jungles of Asian cities. I am sure his other books are equally intriguing.

I've read this book under the title "Giai Phong: The Fall and Liberation of Saigon". Straightaway the author has a propagandistic style, glossing over the way in which Saigon was "liberated" by the Communists. This book is a day by day account of the fall of Saigon, and the author includes interviews with key Communist leaders, such as Tran Van Tra. It is definitely an interesting read with some great photographs, but I believe that the author shows a definite bias toward the Communists, and his bias often gets in the way of honest reporting. It's a good book to read if you want the other side's perspective.