BOOKS: Iyer delivers double dose of Japan

Author of ‘Video Nights in Kathmandu’ offers deep awareness of what passes for home

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Travel writer Pico Iyer published two books on Japan in 2019. He describes them as being “part of the same book,” expressing opposite sides of life as a member of a Japanese family while remaining a perpetual tourist. (Courtesy of Derek Sharpton)

JOHN KRICH, Contributing writer

January 1, 2021 08:00 JST

KYOTO -- Think Pico Iyer and you think of a consciousness without borders.

A British-Indian-Californian, Iyer’s 15 books include “Video Nights in Kathmandu,” chronicling the old hippie trail through Asia, “lonely places” such as North Korea and Paraguay in “Falling Off The Map,” and a transnational “search for home” in “The Global Soul.” Along the way he has also written portraits of Cuba and Canada, and an examination of the exiled Dalai Lama heading down “The Open Road.”