Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail

“When I set off for Istanbul, I was twenty-two and greedy for enlightenment,” writes journalist Abley (The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood, and a Fragile Mind) in this poetic memoir. In 1978, Abley took a break from his studies at Oxford University to travel from Turkey to Nepal with his friend Clare. For Abley, the three-month trip offered an irresistible allure, but his expectations soon clashed with reality: rising tensions between the Turks and the Kurds (at the time of their visit to central Turkey, the government denied the existence of the Kurds) and political unrest in Kabul (a coup had taken place, and Afghanistan’s borders were closed) put a damper on his optimism. Still, Abley and Clare befriended other travelers, explored the underground city of Kaymakli, and attended a Turkish disco. With vivid descriptions (on riding a bus to reach Kashmir Valley: “The air smelled delicious: mingled scents of cedars, pines, and alpine flowers in the precipitous green meadows”) and frank reflections (“Privilege allowed us to ignore the daily lives of the local people we noticed along the way”), Abley gracefully captures a sense of his youthful innocence. Readers will marvel at this nostalgic travelogue. (Feb.)