Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru

“For the committed traveler who wants the real story behind superficial images and impressions.” – The New York Times Book Review“Wright expertly outlines the politics and culture of a nation struggling to come to terms with the abrupt collapse of one world and the fitful emergence of the next…. Hailed as the best modern travel book on Peru, [Cut Stones and Crossroads] combines a scholar’s knowledge of history and archaeology with a traveler’s report on the condition of a complicated, fragmented culture.” – The Globe and Mail“Wright is a superb travel writer with a vivid historical imagination…. Wright describes the two worlds of Peru with vigour, enthusiasm, affection, and a sad, controlled anger.” – The Times (U.K.)“This is a precise, carefully wrought work … [Wright has] written a travel book in the best tradition of travel literature … It weaves personal observation, history, architecture, and anecdotes of gastric and cultural distress.” – Toronto Star“Cut Roads and Crossroads has been called the best modern travel book on Peru, part memoir, part adventure, part cultural study.” – Edmonton Journal“Ronald Wright’s classic travelogue.” – Calgary Herald“Packed with vignettes written in a lively style: poetic pen-pictures of people and places, of horrendous buses on vertiginous roads floating above the fleecy clouds, or urine smells in public places, of the exquisite music of the blind harpists.” – The Guardian (U.K.)“There is so much to praise about this excellent book.” – The Washington Post“Wright is an acute and indefatigable observer….. [He] displays a delicate ironic touch, an unerring instinct for the smallest detail with the maximum relevance to his subject.” – Los Angeles Times“A sympathetic, intelligent picture of the land of Peru…. Anyone curious about this remarkable place will find Wright’s beautifully written book moving and memorable.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)“A marvelous mixture of science and color reporting, antiquities and contemporary politics.” – The Christian Science Monitor“The best modern travel book on Peru that I know.” – John Hemming, author of The Conquest of the Incas