Synopses & Reviews
"Frank Bures has some of the widest (and wildest) curiosities of any writer out there. This is a man who truly wants to know the world, in all its strange and beautiful variations. He is fearless in his reporting, generous in his spirit, and brilliant in his prose. I would follow him anywhere." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
Jon Ronson meets David Grann: a fascinating, wildly entertaining adventure and travel story about how culture can make us go totally insane.
The Geography of Madness is an investigation of “culture-bound” syndromes, which are far stranger than they sound. Why is it, for example, that some men believe, against all reason, that vandals stole their penises, even though they’re in good physical shape? In The Geography of Madness, acclaimed magazine writer Frank Bures travels around the world to trace culture-bound syndromes to their sources–and in the process, tells a remarkable story about the strange things all of us believe.
Review
"With The Geography of Madness, Frank Bures has created a literary, thoughtful study that explores the connections between culture and psychology, storytelling and health. It’s also, to my knowledge, the most pleasant and least painful way to learn about penis theft." Peter Hessler, author of Oracle of Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
Review
"Penis theft. Vampires. Black magic. These are not exactly prime ingredients for a hilarious, empathetic travel book, but Frank Bures has pulled off something incredible in The Geography of Madness. In demonstrating how culture-bound concepts of ‘madness’ and ‘sickness’ really are, he reminds us what we human beings have in common, which is to say, we’re all beautifully, fascinatingly nuts." Tom Bissell, author of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Review
"Bures, a Minneapolis-based travel writer, turns in a reportorial tour de force in this examination of culture, belief and madness." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"Bures asks what forces are at the root of people’s suffering. How is mental and physical health intertwined? Along the way, readers get an entertaining history of the study of culture…bombshells from his own family history…give the story heart." Maclean’s
Review
"It would be easy just to gawk at the strangeness of these syndromes, or to dismiss them as unscientific or psychosomatic. Bures doesn’t do that. He carefully considers the relationships between culture, health, the mind, and the body, which can lead people to experience seemingly impossible things." The Atlantic
About the Author
Frank Bures’s stories have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, Outside, Bicycling, Wired and have been included in a number of Best American Travel Writing anthologies. They’ve also been selected as "Notable" picks for Best American Sports Writing 2012 and the Best American Essays 2013. He speaks several languages, has lived in countries around the world, and currently lives in Minneapolis.
Frank Bures on PowellsBooks.Blog
In August of 1984 on the Island of Hainan in southern China, a fortune teller predicted “1985 would be a bad year and that all of the people would suffer from many disasters,” according to a report later published by the Guangzhou Brain Hospital, which I found while researching my book
The Geography of Madness...
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