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Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive
by Eliot Stein
A vivid look at 10 astonishing people who are maintaining some of the world's oldest and rarest cultural traditions.
Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive, Stein introduces readers to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to tracking down Cuba's last official cigar factory "readers" more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world.
Climbing through Peru's southern highlands, he encounters the last Inca bridge master who rebuilds a grass-woven bridge every year from the fabled Inca Road System. He befriends a British beekeeper who maintains a touching custom of "telling the bees" important news of the day. And he crunches through a German forest to find the official mailman of the only tree in the world with its own address – to which countless people from across the world have written in hopes of finding love. These are just some of the last custodians preserving age-old rites on the brink of disappearance against all odds. Let Eliot Stein introduce you to all of them.
"…a treat for the mind and the senses…Stein lovingly describes the history, traditions, and dignity of these remarkable keepers of age-old customs. Beautifully written, well researched, and unusual in breadth…" —Library Journal (starred review)
"Stein's reverent prose conveys the awe-inspiring nature of these arcane cultural traditions without exoticizing them ("There's something truly singular about witnessing someone do something that nearly nobody else in the world knows how to do. It's like watching a secret"). This is worth seeking out." —Publishers Weekly
"Stein approaches each person and tradition with respect. Area histories are woven into the narrative, providing essential background to understanding what will be lost if these traditions are not carried on. "I am hoping to awaken people to something deep and beautiful they may otherwise never know about," he writes― and he succeeds. A mix of travel, history, craft, and anthropology, this insightful book will especially delight armchair travelers and those interested in the diversity of the world." ―Booklist
"Intrepidly reported and delightfully delivered, Custodians of Wonder is a tonic for our troubled times. From a Swedish night watchman to a Peruvian bridge weaver, Eliot Stein shines a bright and generous light on unexpected pockets of joy―and reminds us of the quiet beauty found in ancient, unbroken traditions. There is much magic, and wisdom, in these pages." ―Eric Weiner, NYT bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius
"I so enjoyed Eliot Stein's celebration of the unsung arts still faintly glowing in the shadows of all our pasts. In this charming book he has uncovered and preserved treasures across five continents that might otherwise have slipped away. As he writes, Custodians of Wonder 'invites us to fall back in love with the world.'" ―Sara Wheeler, author of Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia
This information about Custodians of Wonder was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eliot Stein is a journalist and editor at BBC Travel. His book for St. Martin's Press, Custodians of Wonder, is inspired by a column he created for the BBC called Custom Made in which he profiles remarkable people upholding ancient traditions around the world. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Independent, and elsewhere. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and young son.
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