This book looks like a must-read for multiple reasons. At least 65. That is the number of writers who grapple with how an "ephemeral encounter with a stranger leave such an eternal mark?"

And not least, this essay by an author we have appreciated in these pages several times over the years, titled To My Lost Trishaw Driver:

Pico Iyer on decades of letters to a man he met, once, in Myanmar.

Yangon, Myanmar, via Creative Commons.

Travel is, deep down, an exercise in trust, and sometimes I think it was you who became my life's most enduring teacher. I had every reason to be wary when, in 1985, I clambered out of the overnight train and stepped out into the October sunshine of Mandalay, blinking amidst the dust and bustle of the "City of Kings." Read more of this post