Hav: Last Letters from Hav of the Myrmidons

by Jan Morris

Book Overview

"A touching love-letter, not to an Invisible City but to life itself" (The Independent)

Enchanting travel novellas of a fictional Mediterranean city, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, now with a foreword from Ursula K. Le Guin

Hav is like no place on earth. Rumored to be the site of Troy, captured during the crusades and recaptured by Saladin, visited by Tolstoy, Hitler, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana, this Mediterranean...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590174496
• ISBN13: 9781590174494
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful combination of fiction and travel narrative

A travel book about a fictional city-state: what a fabulous conceit. Jan Morris handles it well, filling the book with details of the city -- its odd mishmash of cultural influences, its people, its architecture -- that made me wish I could visit. The pretense at many famous figures' involvement with Hav adds to the entertainment. And then the tragic changes, a city becoming more uniform and false, tourists remaining on one glitzy island away from the remains of the real city. I mourned for the destroyed Arab buildings and Chinese tower, though it pleased me to know that other people fear homogeneity. Overall, Hav is a fascinating book and well worth a read: a marvellous combination of fiction and travel narrative.