A nomad is someone who can appear anywhere and is comfortable everywhere, but feels at home nowhere.

Bruce Chatwin, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, can be described as belonging to this particular group of people.

British by birth, he spoke several languages, making it easy for him to effortlessly engage with the people that he met all around the world.

A travel writer needs to be able to be present without imposing, taking notes without seemingly memorizing what is being said; adapting to the present situation in a way similar to a shape-shifter, while also remaining true to oneself, a skill Chatwin definitely possessed.

 At the age of 18, he began working at Sotheby’s in London, as junior cataloguer in the section for antiques and impressionist art.

In 1966, he left the auction house to instead study archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, but already after two years, he realized that academia was too tedious and confining for him, and so he quit his studies to instead begin his life as a professional writer and traveller, finding stories wherever he went, writing them down and in the process transforming them into works of great literature.

In total, he wrote six books, many of them bestsellers. What am I doing here? is an edited collection of his journalism, published not long after his death, containing several previously published essays from the 1970s and 80s. In this collection, he introduces us to both famous and more anonymous people he has met during his journeys.

He sits down with Madeleine Vionnet (together with Cristóbal Balenciaga one of the two most important people in the history of 20th century fashion), in her Parisian art déco-apartment, and through this brief encounter, tells the entire history of modern fashion, in only a few pages.

He travels to Peru to meet Maria Reiche, German mathematician and geographer, who devoted her line to the study of The Nazca Lines, a series of mysterious geoglyphs, only possible to see in their entirety from the air.

And, he got André Malraux to describe the hand of Mao Tse-Tung as “pink, as though it had been boiled” as well as Trotsky’s pale, white skin, making him (according to Malraux) appear as a “Sumerian alabaster God”.  He also recounts numerous meetings with anonymous strangers, including Chinese businessmen, nameless soldiers and fellow travellers.

In one of the book’s most interesting essays, Chatwin traces the nomadic existence through human history.

The traditional nomad doesn’t wander aimlessly but follows the changing of the seasons to ensure that there is always food for his animals.

Nomads are notoriously non-religious and lacking in ceremonies, but this is because their entire way of living and movements across the earth form a sort of spiritual ritual.

Newborn children prefer to be held by parents in motion, as this is the true and most natural way of living. Living a nomadic lifestyle makes a person feel free and balanced, in a way that staying one place cannot achieve.

Being alive is being in motion.

Hundreds of thousand years ago, walking on two legs made it possible to develop the human hand, which allowed humans to produce things. In turn, the hand created the potential for the enlarged brain. Walking is thus the foundation of human existence as we know it.

Chatwin’s appreciation for a nomadic lifestyle was noticeable even in his style of writing. In order to continuously travel great lengths, nomads could keep very few possessions. This austere, spartan approach to life, Chatwin applied to his writing. As a cataloguer at Sotheby’s, he was trained to write in a precise yet descriptive manner.

Susannah Clapp, one of his editors, summarized his style as: “Although his syntax was pared down, his words were not – or at least not only, plain… His prose is both spare and flamboyant.”

 Through Chatwin’s perception, extensive knowledge and agile intellect, the reader can get to know previously unfamiliar places while also learning new things about places they thought they already knew.

His endless curiosity makes the world appear like a rich adventure, while humanity is viewed from a bird’s view, our shared history told by someone with the capability of connecting the dots, allowing us to become familiar with the world we live in, in a way never before told.