"Readers of The Odyssey who enjoy traveling often turn their attention to the places that are featured in the hero’s wanderings and his son’s journey in search of his absent father. Yet this book is not an attempt to locate the places visited by Homer’s hero in the real world; instead, it is an attempt to follow the wanderings of Odysseus, which are both literary and almost certainly contain references to real places. Beginning with these places, Wolfgang Geisthövel traces his way back to the poetry through a journey in which personal perception and reading, topography and imagination, and authenticity and fiction all mingle."--Publisher description.