This Could Be Home

Award-winning travel writer Pico Iyer delves into the soul of one of Singapore's most iconic landmarks, The Raffles Hotel. As Singapore marks the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the British and an iconic hotel unveils a dazzling new design, best-selling author Pico Iyer explores how both can offer a fresh model for our world of crossing cultures. Drawing upon numerous stays in Raffles Hotel over thirty-five years and the fast-ascending city around it, this lifelong "global soul" finds new ways of considering not just yesterday, but tomorrow. What might Somerset Maugham write if he were watching East and West mingling around the Palm Court tonight? Why do writers gravitate towards the foreign counter-homes that are hotels? And how have Singapore and its iconic, intimate white-stucco monument evolved to meet the needs of a shifting world? Offering a seasoned observer's meditations on multi- cultures everywhere, Iyer whom Outside magazine calls "arguably the world's greatest living travel writer" draws the curtains on a personal, thoughtful and surprising look at places we too often take for granted.