A fortune-teller told him, "Beware! You run a grave risk of dying in 1993. You mustn't fly that year. Don't fly, not even once." And so Tiziano Terzani travelled on foot, by boat, bus, car, and train through Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The result is "A Fortune-Teller Told Me - Earthbound Travels in the Far East", the most charming and engaging travel book I have read in years.
I am now on the look-out for his other books: "Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon" (1976), "Behind The Forbidden Door: Travels in Unknown China" (1985), "Goodnight, Mr Lenin: A Journey Through the End of the Soviet Empire" (1993), "Letters Against the War" (2002), and "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" (2016).
His testament-book "La fine è il mio inizio" (The End Is My Beginning), co-authored with his son Folco, was published posthumously in March 2006 and sold 400,000 copies in 4 months. The movie "Das Ende ist mein Anfang", an art-house German-Italian production, was based on the book, depicting his last days (summer 2004, when he succumbed to cancer), when he is narrating to his son Folco the adventures of his life, his travels, and his philosophical views on life and death.
That'll give me enough to read and watch while Padma spends the whole of Saturday in the Bay, helping her friend Deidree to run a charity stall.
