PRAISE FOR STRANGE TELESCOPES
'Kalder's vivid, witty and sometimes poetic prose describes encounters with
wonderful and frightening characters ... Kalder shows a cosmopolitan
curiosity and a sense of adventure lacking in much contemporary Scottish
writing and confirms the exciting talent revealed in his Lost Cosmonaut.'
Scotland on Sunday
'Kalder is not only an excellent writer, with a vivid turn of phrase, but a
sympathetic one: his concern is to understand his subjects rather than
exploit them ... his insight and skilful writing keeps you reading.'
Daily Telegraph
'Writing that is vibrant and dynamic and which rolls along taking the reader
with it. His observations, witty and biting, are spot-on in relation to people
and to places.'
Irish Times
'Kalder sets out to create an atypical travel book set in a series of parallel
worlds. The result, recounted in a fractured, collage-like style, is as surreal
as any fiction, and blackly comic in parts. By turns frustrating and
astonishing, this outlandish and unusual collection of absurd stories, full of
experience and anecdote, veracity and invention, nonetheless manages to
capture some of Russia's perverse anarchy and extreme beauty.'
Traveller Magazine
'A compelling journey into the unknown which shows that, even in this day
and age, there's always something new and undiscovered lurking beneath
the surface.'
The Herald
'Kalder is...the Anti-Palin, scouring obscure locations for eccentrics,
malcontents and lunatics ... Thoughtful and funny.'
Esquire
'....a fine guide to a world that will be totally alien to most readers. He writes
with incredible energy ... highly successful throughout ... Laid-back,
unpretentious delivery, occasional interludes, postcards and posed pictures
next to the new Messiah - all combine to make an impressive, unlikely whole.'
Scottish Review of Books
'Daniel Kalder is the perfect Virgil to lead us through the underworld of the
former Soviet Union ... he takes us into a bewildering kaleidoscope world of
shamans and religious zealots'
Waterstones Books Quarterly
'One of the strangest and most entertaining guidebooks I have had the
good fortune to read.'
Daily Post (Book of the Week-of course it's not a guidebook but I'll take the
compliment)