What makes a nation happy? Is one country's sense of happiness the same as another's? In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about who's happy and who isn't. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren't, and Americans are somewhere in between...

After years of going to the world's least happy countries, Eric Weiner, a veteran foreign correspondent, decided to travel and evaluate each country's different sense of happiness and discover the nation that seemed happiest of all.

*He discovers the relationship between money and happiness in tiny and extremely wealthy Qatar (and it's not a good one)
*He goes to Thailand, and finds that not thinking is a contented way of life.
*He goes to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and discovers they have an official policy of Gross National Happiness!
*He asks himself why the British don't do happiness?

In Weiner's quest to find the world's happiest places, he eats rotten Icelandic shark, meditates in Bangalore, visits strip clubs in Bangkok and drinks himself into a stupor in Reykjavik. Full of inspired moments, The Geography of Bliss accomplishes a feat few travel books dare and even fewer achieve: to make you happier.

The grumpiest man on the planet goes in search of the happiest place in the world

About the Author
Eric Weiner spent a decade as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio in the US. He has been based in New Dehli, Jerusalem and Tokyo and has reported from more than thirty countries. He's also served as a correspondent for NPR in New York, Miami and, currently, Washington D.C. Weiner is a former reporter for the New York Times and a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. After travelling the world, he has settled quasi-happily, in the Washington area, where he divides his time between his living room and his kitchen.

Reviews
Part travelogue, part personal-discovery memoir and all sustained delight, this wise, witty ramble reads like Paul Theroux channeling David Sedaris on a particularly good day...Fresh and beguiling." * Kirkus Reviews *



Book Information
ISBN 9780552775083
Author Eric Weiner
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Black Swan
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 283g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 127mm * 25mm