"Witty and meditative by turns, the overall effect is like being shown around by a wonderfully self-effacing, but impressively erudite guide" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR

"Nooteboom has achieved the impossible: to say something new about the ageless city about which everything has been said" ALBERTO MANGUEL

"The whole book is the illuminating testimony of a man who cannot look away and so sees things that others, even those with more specialist knowledge, have missed" GR ...