A British writer who reshaped travel literature through fragmentation and myth, here Chatwin dumps linear narrative in favor of anecdotes, legends, and obsessions he encounters in southern South America. Patagonia becomes a literary landscape rather than a destination. I include it here because I think it redefined what travel writing could be — subjective, restless, and formally inventive.

Read more in my post 6 of the Greatest English-Language Travel Books of all Time.