The Last Opium Den

Driven by romantic, spiritual, and medicinal imperatives, Nick Tosches goes in search of something everyone tells him no longer exists: an opium den. From Europe to Hong Kong to Thailand to Cambodia, he hunts the Big Smoke, bewildered by its elusiveness and, despite the meaning it continues to evoke as a cultural touchstone, its alleged extinction. Weaving his spiritual and hallucinogenic quests together with inimitable, razor-sharp prose, Tosches's trip becomes a deeper meditation on what true fulfillment is and why no one bothers to look for it any more. Born in Newark and schooled in his father's bar, Nick Tosches is the author of the acclaimed biographies of Dean Martin (Deano), Mafia financier Michele Martin (Power on Earth), Sonny Liston (The Devil and Sonny Liston), and Jerry Lee Lewis (Hellfire); and of the novels Trinites and Cut Numbers. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. 'Tosches successfully melds nuts-and-bolts journalism with sardonic solipism.' -Entertainment Weekly 'The grandmaster of grit lit...Tosches writes elegantly about America's underbelly.' -The Boston Globe 'Tosches can't write a dull book.' -The Washington Post Book World 'As versatile, soulful, tough, and funny as any writer at work in America today.' -New York Daily News 'Tosches has a talent for drawing out meaty stories from the dezines of shadowy worlds.' -The New York Times Book Review Nick Tosches trades civilization and its discontents for the possibility of one moment of pure bliss.