--- product_id: 35262455 title: "Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads" price: "401 kr" currency: NOK in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.no/products/35262455-deep-south-four-seasons-on-back-roads store_origin: NO region: Norway --- # Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads **Price:** 401 kr **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads - **How much does it cost?** 401 kr with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.no](https://www.desertcart.no/products/35262455-deep-south-four-seasons-on-back-roads) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description “Theroux’s eye for landscape remains as sharp as ever . . . It’s Theroux’s remarkable gift for getting strangers to reveal themselves that makes going along for this ride worthwhile.” — New York Times Book Review Paul Theroux has spent the past fifty years roaming the globe, describing his encounters with remote people and far-flung places in ten best-selling travel books. Now, for the first time, he explores a part of America—the Deep South. Setting out on a winding road trip, Theroux discovers a region of architectural and artistic wonders, incomparable music, mouth-watering cuisine—and also some of the worst schools, medical care, housing, and unemployment rates in the nation. Yet, no matter where he goes, Theroux meets the unsung heroes of the South, the people who, despite it all, never left, and also those who found their way home and devoted their lives to rebuilding a place they could never live without. “Paul Theroux’s latest travel memoir had me at hello . . . Theroux pulls no punches in his quest to understand this overlooked margin of American life.” — Boston Globe “A vivid contemporary portrait of rural life . . . a deeply affecting personal account.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution Review: A joyful (and fearful) eye-opener - Like all of his other travel books, the narrative of his encounters with the people and the land is a joy to read. But his revelations of the human condition and character of the people living in the areas that he visits were an eye-opener for me. I found it easy to accept the conditions in Dark Star Safari, but HERE??? Thank you for the great read and awareness. Review: More heart than head - When did you ever think a book by Theroux could be described as being more a product of heart than head? On balance, I think it’s well worth reading. It’s also flawed. The positives: He does what almost no one else even attempts to do: take a long, careful look at the rural South. (By way of contrast, I just finished “A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South”. Not one of its essays takes us out of the city. Most don’t even take us out of the university. The countryside all around them might as well be on the moon.) He makes every effort to be fair-minded and write what he believes to be true. He shows us the depth of poverty in the South, and the extent to which racism and the legacy of slavery continue to afflict its people, both Black and White. Unlike some other reviewers, I enjoyed his “digressions” on Southern writers and the n-word. He displays more compassion and empathy than I would have thought possible from this infamous sourpuss. The less-positive: This is not a particularly well-balanced portrait of the rural South. If you ask every person you meet about race, you will produce a book that is predominantly about race. Similarly, if you seek out the poorest and most remote regions of the rural South, you will produce descriptions about how poor and remote they are. The rural South is not completely given over to racial divisions and desperate poverty. Reading Theroux, you could be forgiven for coming away with that impression. As a native Northerner who now lives much of each year in the South, I’m skeptical of Theroux’s often repeated claim that rural poverty in the South is on a different scale and level than in other parts of the country. Just as Clinton, Gates, and other major donors/foundations don’t have to travel to Africa to find areas in desperate need of help, so too Theroux didn’t have to travel to the South to find desperate rural poverty. Drive 10 miles inland from any part of coastal Maine; go down the dirt roads of rural - not touristy - Vermont and New Hampshire; get off the interstates in upstate New York. Why must we always be blind to our own backyards? Theroux accurately describes how limited the contact between Blacks and Whites can be in the South. To the extent this can be attributed to racism (as it inarguably can be), I suspect a defensive Southerner could note that, although Theroux could live literally anywhere, he has chosen to live on Cape Cod (with a Black population of 3%) and Hawaii (with a Black population of less than 2%). How much daily contact does he have with Black Americans? Finally, where oh where was Theroux’s editor? The book is highly repetitive and at least 50 pages too long. My own pet theory is that after writers sell a certain number of books and/or win a number of awards, they are deemed too “significant” to be subjected to the normal editing process. All too often, it shows. ———- On balance, and despite my cavils, do read this book. If, like me, you enjoy engaging with an author, you will be rewarded for your efforts. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #204,483 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #20 in General Southern US Travel Guides #48 in East South Central US Travel Books #65 in General South America Travel Guides | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,704 Reviews | ## Images ![Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71cpWhIJIgL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Language, Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A joyful (and fearful) eye-opener *by B***D on July 2, 2026* Like all of his other travel books, the narrative of his encounters with the people and the land is a joy to read. But his revelations of the human condition and character of the people living in the areas that he visits were an eye-opener for me. I found it easy to accept the conditions in Dark Star Safari, but HERE??? Thank you for the great read and awareness. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ More heart than head *by A***R on February 22, 2022* When did you ever think a book by Theroux could be described as being more a product of heart than head? On balance, I think it’s well worth reading. It’s also flawed. The positives: He does what almost no one else even attempts to do: take a long, careful look at the rural South. (By way of contrast, I just finished “A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South”. Not one of its essays takes us out of the city. Most don’t even take us out of the university. The countryside all around them might as well be on the moon.) He makes every effort to be fair-minded and write what he believes to be true. He shows us the depth of poverty in the South, and the extent to which racism and the legacy of slavery continue to afflict its people, both Black and White. Unlike some other reviewers, I enjoyed his “digressions” on Southern writers and the n-word. He displays more compassion and empathy than I would have thought possible from this infamous sourpuss. The less-positive: This is not a particularly well-balanced portrait of the rural South. If you ask every person you meet about race, you will produce a book that is predominantly about race. Similarly, if you seek out the poorest and most remote regions of the rural South, you will produce descriptions about how poor and remote they are. The rural South is not completely given over to racial divisions and desperate poverty. Reading Theroux, you could be forgiven for coming away with that impression. As a native Northerner who now lives much of each year in the South, I’m skeptical of Theroux’s often repeated claim that rural poverty in the South is on a different scale and level than in other parts of the country. Just as Clinton, Gates, and other major donors/foundations don’t have to travel to Africa to find areas in desperate need of help, so too Theroux didn’t have to travel to the South to find desperate rural poverty. Drive 10 miles inland from any part of coastal Maine; go down the dirt roads of rural - not touristy - Vermont and New Hampshire; get off the interstates in upstate New York. Why must we always be blind to our own backyards? Theroux accurately describes how limited the contact between Blacks and Whites can be in the South. To the extent this can be attributed to racism (as it inarguably can be), I suspect a defensive Southerner could note that, although Theroux could live literally anywhere, he has chosen to live on Cape Cod (with a Black population of 3%) and Hawaii (with a Black population of less than 2%). How much daily contact does he have with Black Americans? Finally, where oh where was Theroux’s editor? The book is highly repetitive and at least 50 pages too long. My own pet theory is that after writers sell a certain number of books and/or win a number of awards, they are deemed too “significant” to be subjected to the normal editing process. All too often, it shows. ———- On balance, and despite my cavils, do read this book. If, like me, you enjoy engaging with an author, you will be rewarded for your efforts. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Engrossing and Powerful *by M***J on February 1, 2016* I'd read several of Theroux's early train-travel novels, like The Great Railway Bazaar, and admired them greatly: his use of language is superb, and the books took you to an exotic place and made you feel you were there, with the sights and smells of a foreign culture leaping from the page. Deep South is different: Theroux is on American soil, and his transport is a car, not an iron horse. But many of the elements are still there: small towns in the Deep South, the grist for the book, are far from the American mainstream. He is frequently reminded of Africa and India, where poverty is deep-seated and a kind of hopelessness often permeates. Indeed, most of the people in the book - many of them black - are struggling to get by, still facing a kind of institutionalized racism and lack of opportunity. Jobs have evaporated, migrating to China or Mexico, and the land itself, rich and often beautiful, is blighted everywhere by rusted shacks and abandoned storefronts. Even the whites (apart from the genteel upper crust) are dispirited, resentful and apparently resigned to a second-class citizenship. What's most impressive in many ways in not just Theroux's power of description, which is prodigious. It's his reporting and his myriad of conversations with people, many of them black, who open up to him about their lives and their hopes and fears. The conversations are honest, revealing, galvanizing. In a number of cases, he befriends people and meets up with them months later to extend the dialogue. But for a Northerner who has little experience with the small-town South, the book is endlessly depressing. Theroux reminds us that so much of U.S. support (public and private) for foreign countries could have gone to rebuilding some of the towns and industries that have spiraled into decay. What is left today is a region that - far from the glittering towers of Atlanta -- is poor and getting poorer, mired in decades of gradual dissolution that shows little hope of recovery. Ultimately, then, it's a gloomy book, but a powerful one energized by the people and the places he visits and the reporter's eye he brings with him. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.no/products/35262455-deep-south-four-seasons-on-back-roads](https://www.desertcart.no/products/35262455-deep-south-four-seasons-on-back-roads) --- *Product available on Desertcart Norway* *Store origin: NO* *Last updated: 2026-09-17*