Combining history and travel narrative, this journey around the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, the sea which gave birth to Western civilisation and has its own, distinct culture. In three cities the author finds traces of a vibrant and cosmopolitan heritage, and asks what these cities and their inhabitants owe to the sea.
Jerusalem is not an ordinary city. This book is both a portrait of a spiritual Jerusalem, and a recounting of the effect the city has on the spirit of one visitor who discovers its ongoing distress and, though sceptical of religion, he discovers some sort of spirituality in himself.
