A Travel Guide to Abandoned and Forsaken Destinations
April 15, 2016
Despite its title, de Tocqueville's book is more a series of intriguing stories than an atlas or a travel guide. Sections cover abandoned cities in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, with each segment describing up to 18 cities on a spread or two each. The places have been forsaken for various reasons, which are related by the author in accessible, enjoyable prose. Canada's Gagnon, for example, was "quite simply wiped off the face of the earth by a vote," while Kolmannskuppe in Namibia was slowly abandoned when its diamond seams ran out (but has been resurrected as a tourist destination). The stories are accompanied by maps that are more decorative than useful; they depict the country in which the city is located, and sometimes surrounding countries, but feature only one or two labels. The city itself is not mapped; rather an illustration of the place's human-made structures is shown on the map, in the manner of the houses and hotels on a Monopoly board. VERDICT For completist history and geography collections only.--Henrietta Verma, formerly with Library Journal
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