A Return to Self - by Aatish Taseer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A blend of travelog and memoir spanning from Turkey to Mexico, exploring Aatish Taseer's uniquely blended identity and asking: Why do certain cities become epicenters of great historical shifts and sites of unpredictable communities?

In 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narenda Modi revoked Aatish Taseer's Indian citizenship, thereby exiling him from the country where he grew up and lived for thirty years. This loss, both practical and spiritual, sent him on a journey of revisiting the places that formed his identity, and asking broader questions about the complex forces that make a culture and a nationality, in the process.

In Istanbul, he confronts the hopes and ambitions of his former self. In Uzbekistan, he sees how what was once the majestic portal of the Silk Road is now a tourist façade. In India, he explores why Buddhism, which originated there, is so little practiced. Everywhere he goes, the ancient world mixes intimately with the contemporary: with the influences of the pandemic, the rise of new food cultures, and the ongoing cultural battles of regions around the world. How do centuries of cultures evolving and overlapping, often violently, shape the people that subsequently emerge from them?

In thoughtful prose that combines reportage with romanticism, Taseer casts an incisive eye at what it means to belong to a place that becomes an unstable, politicized vessel for ideas defined by exclusion and prejudice, and gets to the human heart of the shifts and migrations that define our multicultural world.

Review Quotes

Longlisted for the NBCC Award for Nonfiction
Paste, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer

"A Return to Self is a manifesto for urbanity and cultured, humane worldliness." --Tunku Varadarajan, The Wall Street Journal

"Unwavering in its compassion, A Return to Self untangles the woven threads that have shaped the contemporary global landscape. Ambitious in scope and impressive in its execution, this blended nonfiction work holds two truths at once: humanity's tendency toward destruction and discrimination, as well as its compulsion toward connection. Author and journalist Aatish Taseer succeeds in crafting a philosophically sound book with an approachable and enriching conclusion exploring the transformative power of empathy." --Felicia Reich, A Paste Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"[An] exquisite collection . . . Sumptuously written and elegantly observed, this is a stunning and immersive vision of a fully interdependent world." --Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

"Taseer is a gifted storyteller who absorbs his surroundings and invites readers to experience the distinctive nature of the places he has visited . . . An essential traveling companion." --Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Taseer's work is lyrical, heady, and vulnerable, expertly weaving memoir with research and reflection . . . [A] poetic, insightful travelogue." --Kirkus Reviews

"A Return to Self invites readers on a captivating expedition, painting vivid and intimate portraits in which every detail is a gem to be lingered on. As Taseer navigates the ancient cities of Samarkand, the lush greenery of Sri Lanka, and the historical marvels of Istanbul, he also embarks on an introspective journey, exploring the intersections of culture, memory, self-discovery, and what it means to belong." --Clarissa Ward, author of On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist

"In A Return to Self, Aatish Taseer shows us how to see the world: He reveals what's beneath the facades, what we're missing, how it's all connected--and also how it all feels, tastes, and smells. He takes us deeper, while understanding that the surface is a reality too." --Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sontag: Her Life and Work

"From the high Andes to the heart of Mongolia, Aatish Taseer writes as captivatingly about history, spirituality, and the senses as he does poignantly. These essays, suffused with themes of connection and separation, deliver a lyrical meditation on how traveling far from home can bring you closer to yourself." --Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch

"At once restless and meditative, A Return to Self is a writer's journey into the liminal spaces--of memory, nationality, culture, and sexuality--that we inhabit. From a collection of moving and erudite travel pieces, Aatish Taseer brilliantly creates a portrait of the outsider, whose search for belonging defines the age in which we live." --Tash Aw, author of Strangers on a Pier

"Writers I admire travel to discover other states of mind. But the even more admirable ones travel also to find new parts of their most authentic selves. In these pages, Taseer is such a traveler: the maps he is working with are those of the world, and also of the body, the soul, and the senses. His findings are fascinating and rich." --Amitava Kumar, author of My Beloved Life

"Taseer's fascinating pilgrimage of identity and memory covers vast distances and centuries. Across continents, he makes unexpected connections between cultures and countries, histories and absences, belonging and exile. There is courage in what he says. The history of our world is personal." --Darryl Pinckney

About the Author

AATISH TASEER is the author of the memoir Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands and the acclaimed novels The Way Things Were, a finalist for the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize, The Temple-Goers, short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award, and Noon; and the memoir and travelog The Twice-Born. He is also the translator of a volume of Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories from Urdu, Manto: Selected Stories. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is a Writer at Large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Born in England and raised in New Delhi, educated in the US and previously a journalist in the UK, he now lives in New York.