Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive

BBC travel journalist Stein gives readers a treat for the mind and the senses as he crosses the world to document the work of 10 people who are maintaining some of the world’s oldest cultural traditions. In Peru, he talks to the dedicated inheritor of maintaining a grass suspension bridge. He journeys to a corner of Sardinia to meet a woman devoted to making su filindeu, a rare, hand-crafted pasta. He goes to a mountain village in India that is home to creators of mirrors that purport to reflect one’s true self. Whether he is describing the timeworn tradition of talking to bees in a far-flung corner of England, the socially conscious lector reading to workers in a Cuban cigar factory, the tradition of using wooden casks to produce the best soy sauce in Japan, or the night watchman whose regular soundings give security and comfort to villagers in Ystad, Sweden, Stein lovingly describes the history, traditions, and dignity of these remarkable keepers of age-old customs.