Paul Spencer Sochaczewski

 Exceptional Encounters:
Enhanced Reality Tales from Southeast Asia

Special Kindle launch price of 99 cents through January 29 (after that $4.99)
Paperback available at $14.95

ISBN: 978-2-940573-29-5

Amazon US
Amazon UK

Can an army of orangutan guerillas save the Indonesian rainforest? Why is China creating a retirement haven in the South China Sea for rich despots? What happened when the descendant of the over-sexed first White Rajah of Borneo returned to claim his throne? How did Filipino “love sorcerers” help swing a U.S. election? Can an American pilgrim find enlightenment through carnal escapades? How can Asia’s first “shaman university” repel attacks by rogue black-magic wizards?  And why is Indonesia’s Mermaid Queen really angry and not going to take it anymore?

Exceptional Encounters takes the seeds of true stories and applies the classic fiction writer’s aerobic exercise by asking: What if? These enhanced-reality fabulations draw the reader into tales of just over-the-rainbow Asian kindness, greed, ambition, passion, and dreams.

Critical Praise:

“One of those rare books where fact and fantasy first clash and then merge. Explosively delightful.”  
—Harry Rolnick, author of Spice Chronicles

“At turns outrageous, hilarious, thoughtful, and darkly satirical.  Once again, Sochaczewski has pushed the frontier of personal travel literature into a new dimension.”
—Simon Lyster, chairman World Land Trust 

“Sochaczewski has lifted an Oz-like curtain on the “factual” world of politics, business, and culture and given us insightful (and bitingly satirical) glimpses into a mischievous enhanced reality of Southeast Asia today.”
—James Clad, former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia Pacific Affairs

“A touch of George Orwell for our challenging times.”
—Robin Hanbury-Tenison, explorer, author of Finding Eden

“Elevates germs of true events into memorable folklore leavened with bursts of tongue-in-cheek satire.”
—Anthony Sebastian, former international chairman, Forest Stewardship Council

“Paul Sochaczewski is a Literary Shaman.”
—Gavin Gough, international travel photographer

“Reminds me of the satire of Catch-22 combined with the insightful travel memoirs of Bill Bryson and Mark Twain.”
—Benedict Allen, BBC presenter, author of Into the Crocodile’s Nest

“With a wry eye and a mischievous sense of humor, Sochaczewski smuggles literary contraband back and forth across the border between fact and fiction.”
—Tim Hannigan, author of Raffles and the British Invasion of Java

“Sochaczewski has some Mozart in him—he makes the world a better, and more thoughtful, place.”   
—Jon Ferguson, author of Jesus and Mary

“Fairyland castles raised up on a solid bedrock of deep, personal experience of Southeast Asia.  They resonate scarily with the voice of prophecy.”
—Nigel Barley, author of Snow Over Surabaya

“Story-telling alchemy.”
—Lesley S. Pullen, art historian at SOAS, University of London

“The mysteries of Asia stand revealed, if not explained. Which is as it should be.”
—Lawrence Blair, author of Ring of Fire: An Indonesia Odyssey

“Travel writing evolved to a new dimension, full of wit, insight, and take-no-prisoner fabulations.”
—William Shakespeare, author of Titus Andronicus

“The reader enters a rabbit hole with visions of Asia that are based on fact but seen through a brilliantly diffused looking-glass.”
—Alfred Russel Wallace, bug collector

“Exceptional Encounters rolls along like a runaway truck full of magic potions, scattering whimsy, acumen, and oft-hidden Asian truths along the way.”
—Somerset Maugham, author of Of Human Bondage

“What wonderful stories.  Sex, violence, greed, ambition, and charisma.  They remind me of me!”
—Sukarno, first president of Indonesia

 “The Asian story-telling of Somerset Maugham, the satire of Jonathan Swift, the reality check of Foreign Affairs, and the dark humor of Roald Dahl.”
—Valmiki, author of the Ramayana