Custodians of Wonder - by Eliot Stein (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A vivid look at the ten key people who are maintaining some of the world's oldest and rarest cultural traditions. Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our rarest cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive, Stein introduces readers to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to seeking out Cuba's last official cigar factory "readers" more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world. Climbing through Peru's southern highlands, he encounters the last Inca bridge master who rebuilds a grass-woven bridge from the fabled Inca Road System. He befriends a British beekeeper who maintains a touching custom of "telling the bees" important news of the day and crunches through a German forest to find the official mailman of the only tree in the world with its own address - to which countless people all over the world have written in hopes of finding love. These are just some of the last people on Earth still in touch with quickly vanishing rites. Let Eliot Stein introduce you to all of them"--

Book Synopsis

A vivid look at 10 astonishing people who are maintaining some of the world's oldest and rarest cultural traditions.

Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive, Stein introduces readers to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to tracking down Cuba's last official cigar factory "readers" more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world.

Climbing through Peru's southern highlands, he encounters the last Inca bridge master who rebuilds a grass-woven bridge every year from the fabled Inca Road System. He befriends a British beekeeper who maintains a touching custom of "telling the bees" important news of the day. And he crunches through a German forest to find the official mailman of the only tree in the world with its own address - to which countless people from across the world have written in hopes of finding love. These are just some of the last custodians preserving age-old rites on the brink of disappearance against all odds. Let Eliot Stein introduce you to all of them.

Review Quotes

"Custodians of Wonder bears us away on a journey across geography but also through time and family lineage. Mr. Stein's great gift--his sensitivity and his dedication to capturing joy and hope, however fleeting--is worth giving to others." - The Wall Street Journal

"Stein's reverent prose conveys the awe-inspiring nature of these arcane cultural traditions without exoticizing them ("There's something truly singular about witnessing someone do something that nearly nobody else in the world knows how to do. It's like watching a secret"). This is worth seeking out." - Publisher's Weekly

"...a treat for the mind and the senses...Stein lovingly describes the history, traditions, and dignity of these remarkable keepers of age-old customs. Beautifully written, well researched, and unusual in breadth..." - Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Stein approaches each person and tradition with respect. Area histories are woven into the narrative, providing essential background to understanding what will be lost if these traditions are not carried on. "I am hoping to awaken people to something deep and beautiful they may otherwise never know about," he writes-- and he succeeds. A mix of travel, history, craft, and anthropology, this insightful book will especially delight armchair travelers and those interested in the diversity of the world." -- Booklist

"Custodians of Wonder is a hopeful book, making the case that seemingly idiosyncratic and antiquated practices in distant corners of the world still matter; they reveal a particular place's identity, and offer comfort, community and beauty even through centuries of change." -- BookPage (starred review)

"Custodians of Wonder is the perfect title for this superb and unclassifiable book. Part travel, part anthropology, part memoir, part history, each chapter reveals a cultural treasure or custom that's about to disappear. From a Mali musical instrument, a sacred Sardinian pasta, artisan Japanese soy sauce, a secret mirror, to beekeeping and the survival of medieval night watching on the tip of Sweden, Eliot Stein's quests not only explore each subject in depth but open wide the aperture onto the cultural context. I was enthralled by every chapter. Written with verve and acute observation, this book is one of the rare ones that take you where you've never been." -- Frances Mayes, bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun

"Intrepidly reported and delightfully delivered, Custodians of Wonder is a tonic for our troubled times. From a Swedish night watchman to a Peruvian bridge weaver, Eliot Stein shines a bright and generous light on unexpected pockets of joy--and reminds us of the quiet beauty found in ancient, unbroken traditions. There is much magic, and wisdom, in these pages." -- Eric Weiner, NYT bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius

"I so enjoyed Eliot Stein's celebration of the unsung arts still faintly glowing in the shadows of all our pasts. In this charming book he has uncovered and preserved treasures across five continents that might otherwise have slipped away. As he writes, Custodians of Wonder 'invites us to fall back in love with the world.'" -- Sara Wheeler, author of Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia

About the Author

Eliot Stein is a journalist and editor at the BBC. His forthcoming book for St. Martin's Press, Custodians of Wonder, is inspired by a column he created for BBC Travel called Custom Made in which he profiles remarkable people upholding ancient traditions around the world. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Independent, and elsewhere. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and young son.