'A wonderful, rushing, crowded, enlightening voyage . . . A book which, in its ingenious understanding, its acceptance of a very imperfect world, and its energetic and constant fascination with human variety, should do a great deal to dispel the easiest and therefore the most prolific paranoid deception which the Western imagination has now fabricated in its desperate attempt to avoid facing reality' Angus Wilson, Observer

'A gem of a book, full of events and people and philosophy' Sunday Telegraph

'With an eye for the striking scene and entertaining incident he combines a perceptiveness of deeper realities that makes Arabia more than an amusing travellers' journal' Daily Telegraph

'A very enjoyable book . . . It is racy and entertaining travel writing' Cosmopolitan

'The advent of a new travel writer of the first rank is an occasion to celebrate. Such a discovery is Jonathan Raban, whose Arabia is a tour de force' Yorkshire Post

About the Author

Jonathan Raban was the author of over a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, including Passage to Juneau, Bad Land, Hunting Mister Heartbreak, Coasting, Old Glory, Arabia, Soft City, Waxwings and Surveillance. Over the span of six decades, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, the Thomas Cook Award, the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award, and the Governor's Award of the State of Washington. His work appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Harpers, The New York Review of Books, Outside, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, The London Review of Books, and other magazines.


In 1990 Raban, a British citizen, moved from London to Seattle, where he lived with his daughter until his death in 2023.

Book Information
ISBN 9780330300582
Author Jonathan Raban
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 127mm * 20mm