This is a book written by Tiziano Terzani and published posthumously in 2018. It is described as an original work by an author who was appreciated by more than five million Italian readers.

Tiziano Terzani was born in Florence in 1938 and has lived in Asia with his family for thirty years. As a matter of fact, he worked as correspondent for the German newspaper Der Spiegel in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok and New Delhi, where he also works for La Repubblica, L’Espresso and il Corriere della Sera. He has written and published several books about the experiences he was living and witnessing during his life in Asia – such as the Vietnam war, China after Mao, and the collapse of the Soviet Union -, which were translated into different languages.

Furthermore, he also wrote about his thoughts and perceptions of the state of the world, his warnings towards the danger of using violence to let humanity survive, and his questions about the meaning of life. He died in Orsigna in 2004. Some of his books were published after his death and one of them also became a movie.

In America. Cronache da un mondo in rivolta was born out of Terzani’s life and work experiences. After a job at Olivetti sends him to Asia, he decides he would rather like to pursue his dream to be a reporter and therefore takes the opportunity to get a scholarship for a Master course at Columbia University. He resigns from his job at Olivetti and boards a ship from Genova to the United States. He first lived in New York and then in California, where he studied Chinese at Stanford University, and then started travelling throughout the country. He visited what he called America’s belly (la pancia dell’America), referring to the states of Midwest and Deep South. This book is basically the collection of his reportage during the two years in which he travelled within the United States. He lived through the generational and political conflicts of 1968 and reported about the pressing issues of that time, such as political elections, racial problems, protests against the war, the march on Washington and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. The author’s accounts are here accompanied by pictures from the family archives. They are defined as, “[…]chronicles from a world in revolt, in which Terzani demonstrates for the first time his extraordinary instincts as a great reporter, which enable him to identify and report on the most important and exciting events in History”.

Terzani was a journalist and an author who had a deep knowledge of Asia thanks to his working experiences. He arrived in the region for the first time in 1965 and witnessed firsthand the most important phases of the Vietnam War and the Communist party taking power. From 1980 to 1984, he lived in Beijing until he was expelled after being accused of carrying out counterrevolutionary activities. He retired in 1996 and the year after that he received the Luigi Barzini award for his work as special correspondent.   

Terzani's great popularity, the growing affection of a vast audience are a tribute not only to the writer but to a life passionately devoted to understanding and telling the world, and to the great strength of his message of peace.[1]

[1] La grande popolarità di Terzani, l'affetto crescente di un pubblico vastissimo sono un omaggio non solo allo scrittore ma a una vita dedicata con passione a capire e raccontare il mondo, e alla grande forza del suo messaggio di pace