'Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar' by Paul Theroux

IN 1973, an expatriate American novelist possessed of great ambitions, pretty good reviews and slender means set out from London's Victoria Station to circumnavigate the great Eurasian land mass, mostly by train. Two years later, he published an account of that epic journey, "The Great Railway Bazaar."

By Tim Rutten

August 20, 2008