THE OLD PATAGONIAN EXPRESS

Penguin Audiobooks, UK, 1995.  ISBN 0-14-086108-4.  2 audio cassette tapes with an approx. playing time of 3 hours, still in manufacturer’s shrink wrap with a few tears to wrap and a bit of sticker residue.  Read by William Hootkins.  ‘Beginning his journey in Boston, on the subway train people take to work, Paul Theroux travelled, by trains of all kinds, the length of North and South America.  This is the witty and sharply observed story of his voyage from ice-bound Massachusetts and Illinois to the arid plateau of Argentina’s southern-most tip.  Sweating and shivering by turns as the temperature and altitude shoot up and down, meeting an extraordinary array of characters including Borges in Buenos Aires, Paul Theroux vividly evokes a journey “to the end of the line”.’ (from rear case)