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272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
Though I had been in Lisbon for a week, I hadn’t yet got used to its carefree illumination. In the countries I had come from, the cities at night were black as coal mines, and a lantern in the darkness was more to be feared than the plague in the Middle Ages.
‘But uncertainty has its points. If it doesn’t kill you, it can lead to an unshakable certainty. That’s a lot of big words, but they only reflect the experience of a rolling stone.’
‘Rolling stone?’
‘Like me. A man who can’t stop anywhere, who can never settle down. The existence of a refugee. Or a Buddhist mendicant monk. Or modern man. There are more refugees in the world than you think. A good many of them have never left home.’