To Timbuktu for a Haircut

Historically rich, remote, and once unimaginably dangerous for foreign travelers, Timbuktu still teases with "Find me if you can." Rick Antonson, an internationally respected tourism executive, coaxes the reader with charm and knowledge into joining his personal quest in West Africa. His encounters with entertaining train companions Ebou and Ussegnou, a mysterious cook called Nema, and intrepid guide Zak, all make you want to pack up and leave for Timbuktu tomorrow.

As Antonson travels in Senegal and Mali by train, four-wheel drive, river pinasse, camel and foot, he tells of fourteenth-century legends, nineteenth-century explorers, and today's endangered existence of Timbuktu's 700,000 ancient manuscripts in what scholars have described as the most important archaeological discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.

To Timbuktu for a Haircut combines wry humor with shrewd observation to deliver an armchair experience that will linger in the mind long after the last page is read.