Meander: East to West, Indirectly, Along a Turkish River

“I had never been up a minaret… the question was whether it was wise that I should begin with a derelict one.” Seal (A Fez of the Heart), who has long rambled the highways and byways of Anatolia, ponders this and a thousand other timeless queries as he travels the length of the river that gives his book its name. The Menderes, as it is now known, once boasted the world’s most fabulous cities along its windy banks, and caravans passed by carrying the treasures, and warriors, of Rome, Persia, Byzantium, and Egypt. The ravages of time, earthquakes and deliberate erasures have conspired to leave a forgotten region of dusty provincial backwaters, full of menacing dogs and peculiar personalities. Seal takes advantage of his circuitous route to meditate on the joy of the open road in the style of Paul Theroux or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Along the way, he interweaves his river’s history, from the march of Xerxes to the spread of Christianity to the atrocities of the Greco-Turkish wars, with his own observations on rural Turkey and the societal convulsions since, he muses to himself, “[p]eople like you began to arrive.” Lively and richly detailed, this will appeal to all those who love reading about epic travelogues of arduous journeys. Photos. Agent: David Miller, Rogers Coleridge and White (U.K.). (June)