Travel & Adventure

If you love Venice, you’re going to want to read this book. Peter Ackroyd has already proved himself an able biographer of cities with his wonderful London: The Biography. What Ackroyd is so good at is showing how a place influences the life and the spirit of the great city built on top of it. Venice has always had to contend with the gifts and threats of the sea. Here is a writer who can make us see the full significance of Venice’s unique life and history. Believe me, it’s going to enrich your reading of Donna Leon! —Seana

There are still places on earth that are unknown. Visually stunning and uniquely designed, this wondrous book captures fifty islands that are far away in every sense—from the mainland, from people, from airports, and from holiday brochures. Author Judith Schalansky used historic events and scientific reports as a springboard for each island, providing information on its distance from the mainland, whether it’s inhabited, its features, and the stories that have shaped its lore. With full-color maps and an air of mysterious adventure, Atlas of Remote Islands is perfect for the traveler or romantic in all of us.