Los diarios del opio

Rudyard Kipling met his doom in the brothels of colonial India; Conrad discovered in Borneo a destiny made for "gutless men" and Graham Greene was trapped in clouds of opium in the decline of Saigon. David Jiménez follows the footsteps of legendary writers who were bewitched by the magic of the Orient, walks through the settings of their books and embarks on an odyssey to solve the great mystery. What is the secret that has drawn travelers, explorers and writers to the East since the time of Marco Polo? The author delves into the Burma that George Orwell lived as an imperial policeman; China where the mythical reporter Martha Gellhorn suffered her "trip to hell" in the company of Hemingway; or the crazy Philippines that Manu Leguineche described. Mythical war hotels, remote islands, lost worlds and fascinating characters are the stars of a tour in which Jiménez reveals to us what remains -and what has vanished- from the Asia that inspired the figures of literature. The result is an adventure through a boiling continent, a journey through the depths of human nature and a fast-paced and obsessive search for the elusive oriental mystery.