Romancing the East: A Literary Odyssey from the Heart of Darkness to the River Kwai

Profiling individual, legendary authors, best-selling author Jerry Hopkins combines his research and his own experiences as a longtime expatriate with an intimate knowledge of Asia and offers us a unique perspective on the impact of Eastern culture in Western literature.

From the time of Marco Polo's trek across the Central Asian desert to the empire of the mighty Mongol Khan, no other place on earth, not the languid South Pacific or even deepest, darkest Africa has so challenged and enchanted the Western imagination as have the fabled lands of the East

However soaked in blood its history and no matter how unsettling its social conditions and poverty, Asia has never lost its irresistible attraction or mysticism. It has long been an inspiration for Western novelists, so much so that more than 5000 novels have been set in Asia in the English language alone. Storied names like Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, Pearl S. Buck, George Orwell, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster and many more have used their experiences in Asia as a vibrant backdrop for some of the world's most famous works of literature.

Jerry Hopkins has published more than 1,000 magazine articles and 36 books, including several international bestsellers--the cult classic No One Here Gets Out Alive, among them. This biography of rock singer Jim Morrison was a No. 1 bestseller in the New York Times in 1980 (remaining on that list for nine months) and went back to No. 2 in 1991 when it was a primary source for Oliver Stone’s film The Doors. There are more than four million copies in print. He moved to Thailand in 1993 and developed a strong reputation writing about food, travel, and various aspects of Asian life and culture. Since moving he has written Thailand Confidential, a collection of essays about life in that country; Bangkok Babylon, twenty-five profiles of some of the most interesting expatriates he met during his first ten years in Southeast Asia; and Asian Aphrodisiacs, the first definitive (and often humorous) survey of the region’s best and worst ＂turn-ons,＂ the first two published in 2005, the last in 2006. He and his Thai-Khmer wife divide their time between a flat in Bangkok and a house on a working farm an eight-hour train ride away near the Cambodian border.