With considerable skill, Mueller skids around the globe from failed state to ravaged warzone to desolate no-man's-land, from Beirut to Basra via Belfast and Bihac to try to unpick why we humans seem so prone to plucking war from the jaws of peace, why so much that can go wrong does go wrong, over and over again, and how and why some conflicts suddenly, quietly, inexplicably seem to find themselves solved. It's a surprisingly sunny book given the mire in which he finds himself. And it is a notably entertaining and eye-opening tour of the world's moral basements in the vein of Holidays in Hell or Emergency Sex.
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Review
'A wry, informed and frequently baffled commentary on the idiocy of modern human behaviour' -- Metro
'As hilarious and sardonic... as this ridiculous world of ours demands'
-- Shortlist
'His acerbic wit is matched by true empathy...we need this kind of investigative gonzo journalism more than ever' -- Wanderlust
'Interesting and laced with dark, comic irony' - Real Travel
-- Review
'Simultaneously positive and bleak ... This book seems to bring hope and shame us for our own inaction'- Financial Times -- Review
'Touching and often blackly comic' -- GQ
`A 21st-century original; a fresh, irreverent and jovial jaunt of a guidebook around our baffling modern world' - Guardian -- Review
`A 21st-century original; a fresh, irreverent, wry and jovial jaunt of a guidebook around our baffling modern world' -- Guardian Online
`Lively reporting from a gently humorous narrator ... the book comes recommended' -- The Times
`Mueller's travel writing is as insightful and entertaining ... it's one helluva ride'
-- TNT
'As hilarious and sardonic... as this ridiculous world of ours demands'
-- Shortlist
'His acerbic wit is matched by true empathy...we need this kind of investigative gonzo journalism more than ever' -- Wanderlust
'Interesting and laced with dark, comic irony' - Real Travel
-- Review
'Simultaneously positive and bleak ... This book seems to bring hope and shame us for our own inaction'- Financial Times -- Review
'Touching and often blackly comic' -- GQ
`A 21st-century original; a fresh, irreverent and jovial jaunt of a guidebook around our baffling modern world' - Guardian -- Review
`A 21st-century original; a fresh, irreverent, wry and jovial jaunt of a guidebook around our baffling modern world' -- Guardian Online
`Lively reporting from a gently humorous narrator ... the book comes recommended' -- The Times
`Mueller's travel writing is as insightful and entertaining ... it's one helluva ride'
-- TNT
About the Author
Born in Australia, ANDREW MUELLER has been based in London for the last 20 years
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Tim Thornton
Format:Paperback
The name Andrew Mueller mightn't ring a bell but you've almost certainly read something by him. That unexpectedly witty travel feature you read in a Sunday supplement or inflight magazine? Probably his. Those hilarious pop single reviews in the Guardian Guide? That's him. Until recently, that is - when he's most likely been traipsing around the globe writing this rather brilliant book.
If you're the sort of person (like me) who likes the idea of visiting rather dicey places like Kosovo or Iraq but lacks the nerve to really do much about it, this is for you: Mueller's been there, done it, bought the politically incorrect T-shirt, often been shot at while doing so. He carts the reader about like a 21st Century Mr Benn for grown-ups, nipping into the fitting room and emerging in some desperate war-torn corner where he mixes it with the locals and drinks with the bad guys.
There's a serious heart beating somewhere in the middle: one of Mueller's main theses, that of personal accountability for acts of terrorism, is sensitively and convincingly presented - but it's the wit and the attention to detail which really keep you ploughing through.
An essential.
If you're the sort of person (like me) who likes the idea of visiting rather dicey places like Kosovo or Iraq but lacks the nerve to really do much about it, this is for you: Mueller's been there, done it, bought the politically incorrect T-shirt, often been shot at while doing so. He carts the reader about like a 21st Century Mr Benn for grown-ups, nipping into the fitting room and emerging in some desperate war-torn corner where he mixes it with the locals and drinks with the bad guys.
There's a serious heart beating somewhere in the middle: one of Mueller's main theses, that of personal accountability for acts of terrorism, is sensitively and convincingly presented - but it's the wit and the attention to detail which really keep you ploughing through.
An essential.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm not an intrepid traveller but Mueller is. I think I would feel safe going round the world with him. People talk to him and maybe tell him things they shouldn't.
He then does something which seems easy but isn't, he writes about it amusingly and interestingly. I learned a lot, I laughed a lot.
It's a thick old chunk of a book but don't be put off, you'll whizz through it and still want more.
He then does something which seems easy but isn't, he writes about it amusingly and interestingly. I learned a lot, I laughed a lot.
It's a thick old chunk of a book but don't be put off, you'll whizz through it and still want more.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Tattie
Format:Paperback
After a mildly shaky start (in my uninformed, only-read-10-books-in-the-last-5-years view), which seemed a bit "over-written" at times, this book evened out into one of the most thought-provoking, entertaining and interesting things I've read in ages.
I actually find myself caring about the guy, which is odd for a journalist-written travelogue around the world's warzones and trouble spots. I even felt for him as he described his break up with his girlfriend. I want to take him out for a beer.
Andrew Mueller is a genuinely interesting, no-bulls**t guy, who never over-dramatises, never forgets who he is and where he is, and never makes the mistake of not questing the rationale of everyone he meets. It's made me realise what a lipstick leftie I am. Every single "opinion" I have comes from reading the Guardian, and whilst I have no doubt that a healthy bit of self-loathing is appropriate for the Western World (given the state of the rest of it) it never occurred to me to say: "Hold on. Maybe if you people would stop being such irrational twats you might have a chance of talking your way out of the mess you're in? You can't blame everyone else for everything all of the time!". You'd think, coming from Northern Ireland, that my sense of the preposterous when it comes to sovereignty and politics would be suitably developed.
Anyway - read it - it's chunky to the point that it's taken me a plane ride and two weeks of commutes and I am only just over halfway through. However, being a pint-half-empty man, I am already trying to make myself read it more slowly, whilst wistfully looking at the size of the remaining chunk of pages as they dwindle away. I have an awful gnawing feeling that the next book I pick up won't be a patch on it.... although, to be fair, I think that every time. I am either blessed with lucky book choices, or else a slut for the written word after 30 years of abstinence.
I actually find myself caring about the guy, which is odd for a journalist-written travelogue around the world's warzones and trouble spots. I even felt for him as he described his break up with his girlfriend. I want to take him out for a beer.
Andrew Mueller is a genuinely interesting, no-bulls**t guy, who never over-dramatises, never forgets who he is and where he is, and never makes the mistake of not questing the rationale of everyone he meets. It's made me realise what a lipstick leftie I am. Every single "opinion" I have comes from reading the Guardian, and whilst I have no doubt that a healthy bit of self-loathing is appropriate for the Western World (given the state of the rest of it) it never occurred to me to say: "Hold on. Maybe if you people would stop being such irrational twats you might have a chance of talking your way out of the mess you're in? You can't blame everyone else for everything all of the time!". You'd think, coming from Northern Ireland, that my sense of the preposterous when it comes to sovereignty and politics would be suitably developed.
Anyway - read it - it's chunky to the point that it's taken me a plane ride and two weeks of commutes and I am only just over halfway through. However, being a pint-half-empty man, I am already trying to make myself read it more slowly, whilst wistfully looking at the size of the remaining chunk of pages as they dwindle away. I have an awful gnawing feeling that the next book I pick up won't be a patch on it.... although, to be fair, I think that every time. I am either blessed with lucky book choices, or else a slut for the written word after 30 years of abstinence.
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