The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World

一個愛發牢騷的作家。十個國家。
有哪個地方能讓他快樂起來嗎？

　　很多作家試著告訴我們快樂是什麼，卻很少作家告訴我們快樂在「哪裡」、為什麼某地方的人比別的地方快樂、為什麼換地方就能換心情。

　　艾瑞克．魏納說自己是個鬱鬱寡歡的人，他長期擔任美國國家公共廣播電台的海外特派員，過去二十多年來，採訪過三十多國發生的災難與弊端，但在這本書裡，他要講另一面的故事。在新興學科「正面心理學」的引導下，魏納造訪了全球幾個最滿足的地方：快樂與悲慘比鄰而居的印度；國王把國民快樂毛額當國家首務的不丹；居民深信嫉妒是快樂最大敵人的瑞士；儘管嚴寒、偏遠、挫敗連連，卻是全世界最快樂的地方之一的冰島。而作者發現，這是有原因的。

　　探索全球的過程中，魏納藉助「自助工業集團」的集體智慧來尋找快樂之道，那些哲學家、作家和追求者的真知灼見，成了他這趟昂揚之旅的索引地圖，很少有旅遊書籍作家能把作者的心靈旅程，寫得跟外在旅程一樣意義深遠卻又有趣的。書中不時有發人深省的字句，很少書敢設下它這樣的目標，更少書能達成它所達到的目標：這本書會讓你變得更快樂。

　　★本書中譯本《尋找快樂之國》由天下文化出版

　　Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the listener from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

作者簡介

艾瑞克．魏納(Eric Weiner)

　　擔任美國全國公共廣播電台海外特派員達十年之久，曾留駐新德里、耶路撒冷和東京，報導過三十多國的新聞。他也曾擔任該公司駐紐約和邁阿密特派員，目前則派駐華盛頓特區。魏納曾任《紐約時報》記者，與史丹佛大學的奈特新聞學者（Knight Journalism Fellow）。他的評論文章散見《洛杉磯時報》、網路雜誌《岩頁》（Slates）和《新共和雜誌》（The New Republic）等刊物。探訪過全世界後，他定居華府，好像挺快樂的，時間不是花在客廳，就是廚房。

　　Eric Weiner, an award-winning foreign correspondent for NPR and a former reporter for the New York Times, has written stories from more than three dozen countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Indonesia. His commentary has appeared in The New Republic, The International Herald Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times, and he writes the popular "How They Do It" column for Slate. He has lived in New Delhi, Jerusalem and Tokyo.