Sliced Iguana: Travels in Mexico

Behind the facade of sombreros and tequila, tourist traps and holiday resorts, there lies a very different Mexico. This book explores a town that is the heart and lifeblood of the Americas, a country of extremes and contradictions.

When future generations assess which foreign countries have had the greatest influence on prominent writers in the 20th century, Mexico is certain to figure prominently. Graham Greene, Jack Kerouac, Malcolm Lowry, Gabriela Mistral and Octavio Paz all found the contradictions that thrive in Mexico rich food for their creative imaginations. Yet, in spite of the fact that it is the world's 14th biggest country, and possesses an immense ethnic diversity, most of us who have never been there tend to think of Mexico as one, more or less uniform, place.

In Sliced Iguana acclaimed travel writer Isabella Tree sets out to put the record straight. Embarking on a series of journeys to different corners of the country, she experiences the many different faces of the patchwork: eating Castañeda's famous peyote cactus with the Huichol people, visiting the rebellious Indians of Chiapas, and then partying in a region which stands against the overbearing Latin machismo--Juchitán, where over two thirds of the men are transvestites.

Tree writes with an impressive erudition about the conquistadors and the indigenous peoples whose lives they shattered forever. She has a connoisseur's eye for colonial architecture, and her observations are often perceptive and thought-provoking. Although the dialogue between herself and the people she meets is a little thin, her writing is sharp and illuminating, and this is likely to be among the best travel books published this year. --Toby Green