Exceptional Encounters: Enhanced Reality Tales from Southeast Asia - Softcover

Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 2940573301 ISBN 13: 9782940573301

Publisher: Explorer's Eye Press, 2018

Synopsis

Can an army of orangutan guerrillas save the Indonesian rainforest? Why is China creating a retirement haven in the South China Sea for rich despots? What happened when the British descendant of the oversexed first White Rajah of Borneo returned to claim his throne? Did Filipino “love sorcerers” help swing a US election? Can an American pilgrim find enlightenment through carnal escapades? How can Asia’s first “shaman university” repel an attack by rogue black-magic wizards? And why is Indonesia’s Mermaid Queen really angry and not going to take it anymore? 

Exceptional Encounters takes the seeds of true stories and applies the classic fiction writer’s aerobic exercise by asking: What if? These enhanced-reality fabulations draw the reader into tales of just-over-the-rainbow Asian kindness, greed, ambition, passion, and dreams.

“Once again, Sochaczewski has pushed the frontier of travel literature in a thought-provoking new direction.”
—Simon Lyster, chairman, World Land Trust
 
“Sochaczewski at his very best – sharp, witty, energetic, and unafraid to be irreverent. Reminds me of the satire of Catch-22 combined with the insight travel memoirs of Bill Bryson and Mark Twain.”
—Benedict Allen, BBC presenter, author of Into the Crocodile’s Nest
 
“A collection of stories you can savor on many levels. The Asian storytelling of Somerset Maugham, the satire of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell, the reality check of Foreign Affairs, and the dark humor of Roald Dahl.”
—Valmiki, author of the Ramayana

About this title

About the Author

Paul Spencer Sochaczewski is a Geneva-based writer and writing coach. While with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature International), Paul created global campaigns to protect rainforests and biological diversity, and then developed the WWF Faith and Environment program. Paul has lived and worked in more than eighty countries, including two decades in Southeast Asia. He has written more than six hundred by-lined articles for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Travel and Leisure, CNN Traveller, Reader's Digest, and Geographical. In addition, he has written about the nature of Malaysia in Malaysia: Heart of Southeast Asia, served on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Indonesian Heritage Encyclopedia, and was project initiator for Tanah Air: Celebrating Indonesia's Biodiversity. And because this is a book of fantasy, Paul is a daring giant-wave surfer (four-time winner of the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau on Oahu's North Shore), has summited K2 without supplemental oxygen, proven that orang pendek, which he dubbed "snowmen of the jungle," live in the rainforests of Sumatra (he spent three weeks with a troupe of the elusive hominoids, whose existence had never been proven, recording their vocalizations and filming their daily activities), studied teleportation techniques with a Bhutanese Tantra master, and has won three Pulitzer Prizes for his incisive writing and commentary. He has never spoken publicly about his arm-wrestling victory over Arnold Schwarzenegger. George Clooney or Harrison Ford will star in a biopic of Paul's life, now in pre-production. www.sochaczewski.com

Review

"One of those rare books where fact and fantasy first clash and then merge. Explosively delightful."  
--Harry Rolnick, author of Spice Chronicles
 
"At turns outrageous, hilarious, thoughtful, and darkly satirical.  Once again, Sochaczewski has pushed the frontier of personal travel literature into a new dimension."
--Simon Lyster, chairman World Land Trust 
 
"Sochaczewski has lifted an Oz-like curtain on the "factual" world of politics, business, and culture and given us insightful (and bitingly satirical) glimpses into a mischievous enhanced reality of Southeast Asia today."
--James Clad, former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia Pacific Affairs
 
"A touch of George Orwell for our challenging times."
--Robin Hanbury-Tenison, explorer, author of Finding Eden

"Elevates germs of true events into memorable folklore leavened with bursts of tongue-in-cheek satire."
--Anthony Sebastian, former international chairman, Forest Stewardship Council

"Paul Sochaczewski is a Literary Shaman."
--Gavin Gough, international travel photographer

"Reminds me of the satire of Catch-22 combined with the insightful travel memoirs of Bill Bryson and Mark Twain."
--Benedict Allen, BBC presenter, author of Into the Crocodile's Nest

"With a wry eye and a mischievous sense of humor, Sochaczewski smuggles literary contraband back and forth across the border between fact and fiction."
--Tim Hannigan, author of Raffles and the British Invasion of Java

"Sochaczewski has some Mozart in him--he makes the world a better, and more thoughtful, place."   
--Jon Ferguson, author of Jesus and Mary
 
"Fairyland castles raised up on a solid bedrock of deep, personal experience of Southeast Asia.  They resonate scarily with the voice of prophecy."
--Nigel Barley, author of Snow Over Surabaya
 
"Story-telling alchemy."
--Lesley S. Pullen, art historian at SOAS, University of London
 
"The mysteries of Asia stand revealed, if not explained. Which is as it should be."
--Lawrence Blair, author of Ring of Fire: An Indonesia Odyssey

*   *   *   *   *

"Travel writing evolved to a new dimension, full of wit, insight, and take-no-prisoner fabulations."
--William Shakespeare, author of Titus Andronicus
 
"The reader enters a rabbit hole with visions of Asia that are based on fact but seen through a brilliantly diffused looking-glass."
--Alfred Russel Wallace, bug collector
 
"Exceptional Encounters rolls along like a runaway truck full of magic potions, scattering whimsy, acumen, and oft-hidden Asian truths along the way."
--Somerset Maugham, author of Of Human Bondage
 
"What wonderful stories.  Sex, violence, greed, ambition, and charisma.  They remind me of me!"
--Sukarno, first president of Indonesia
 
 "The Asian story-telling of Somerset Maugham, the satire of Jonathan Swift, the reality check of Foreign Affairs, and the dark humor of Roald Dahl."
--Valmiki, author of the Ramayana 

About this edition

• Publisher: Explorer's Eye Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 2940573301
• ISBN 13: 9782940573301
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230