Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best-known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975). He has published numerous works of fiction, some of which were adapted as feature films. His non-fiction work is noted for his rich descriptions of people and places, laced with a heavy streak of irony, or even misanthropy.

He is the father of British authors and documentary filmmakers Marcel Theroux and Louis Theroux, the brother of authors Alexander Theroux and Peter Theroux, and uncle of the American actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux.


 * Saint Jack was filmed by director Peter Bogdanovich (1979).
 * Doctor Slaughter was made into the film Half Moon Street (1986).
 * The Mosquito Coast was made into a film of the same name (1986).
 * Chinese Box (1997), a film about the British handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, credits Theroux as a source for the story, based on themes he explored in his 1997 novel Kowloon Tong.


 * Banned in China:
 * Jungle Lovers (1971) was banned by the government in Malawi.
 * Saint Jack (1973) was banned by the government of Singapore for 30 years.
 * Take That: In a 2005 op-ed The Rock Star's Burden, he criticized Bono, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as "mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth."