Describes the author's youth as the daughter of a man who shared fantastical tales about his privileged Buenos Aires youth, Vietnam heroism, and celebrity friendships, and her astonishment upon learning that her father fabricated many of his experiences.

"In the early twentieth century, travel writing represented the desire for the expanding bourgeoisie to experience the exotic cultures of the world past their immediate surroundings. Journalist William Buehler Seabrook was emblematic of this trend--participating in voodoo ceremonies, riding camels cross the Sahara desert, communing with cannibals and most notably, popularizing the term 'zombie' in the West. A string of his bestselling books show an...