It's a recent railway travelogue by Paul Theroux. It was difficult to read in places, perhaps because it is so recent. His trip was in 2005-2006-ish. He sees stirrings of trouble around Ossetia--so this was unsettling reading as there was fighting going on in Ossetia. He travels through Europe and Asia; not every place is the site of some historical massacre, but there were plenty of massacres. He goes to Sri Lanka--yes, even though the Tamil Tigers were attacking.
But this journey, like others, is mostly about meeting interesting people along the way. Some are helpful, some are awful, some are tragic, at least one is a sourpuss. There are hard-working rickshaw drivers, one of whom made me cry. Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge. Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka. Murakami in Tokyo--visiting a French Maid cafe, no less.