WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO TRAVEL WRITING 2020 The
master of contemporary travel writing Paul Theroux immerses himself in the beautiful and
troubled heart of modern Mexico Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United
States of America. A forty-foot steel fence runs through its centre separating the prosperous
US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension now more than
ever as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and
brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich
but troubled heart of modern Mexico. Moving through the deserts just south of the Arizona
border Theroux finds a place brimming with charm yet visibly marked by both the US border
patrol looming to the north and mounting discord from within. Attending local language and
culinary schools driving through the country and meeting its people Paul Theroux gets under
the skin of Mexico. From the writer praised for his 'curiosity and affection for humanity in
all its forms' (New York Times Book Review) On The Plain of Snakes is an urgent and
mesmerising exploration of a region in conflict. Praise for Paul Theroux: 'As cool as
Maugham... as observant intuitive wry inventive and eloquent as Graham Greene' Sunday Times
'Theroux's work remains the standard by which other travel writing must be judged' Observer
'The world's most perceptive travel writer' Daily Mail 'One of the most accomplished and
worldly-wise writers of his generation' The Times
