In the era of always-on GPS, places far from the maps still exist. Utopias, sometimes dreams, sometimes nightmares: collective hallucinations, which however really exist. The geographer Alastair Bonnett has put them all together, and in this book he tells the story of the most unusual places on the planet. Places where we would hardly go on holiday, yet incredibly fascinating. ~ There are the frozen islands of Scotland and the endless archipelago of the Philippines, the Ladin enclaves in the Dolomites, the genocidal dystopias of the Middle East and decidedly more relaxing environments such as the "autonomous zone" of Christiania. And then the nomadic tribes and their life in eternal movement, a city of waste in Cairo, the mysteries of the Tokyo subway. Starting from the strangest, most fascinating or terrible corners of the Earth, Bonnett addresses the key issues of our time: global warming, migration, ethnic violence, technological evolution with its benefits and its damages. Beyond the Maps is an ode to a world that is always connected, but at the same time fragmented. Where, despite everything, mystery and the unknown still win.
