Darkness and Light with Paul Theroux

For decades now, novelist and famed travel writer Paul Theroux has taken Americans on journeys through the exotic and wild. From his breakthrough first travel book, "The Great Railway Bazaar," to the emotionally explosive destruction of a tropical utopia in "The Mosquito Coast," Theroux's writing reaches to the farthest points on the globe and the deep recesses of human nature.

Now, Paul Theroux is traveling inward. His new novel, "Blinding Light," is a dark exploration of the desperate personal journey of a middle-aged man who travels to Ecuador searching for a jungle drug that brings dazzling insight and blindness. Going blind plunges the character into a borderless world and on a journey through his own sexual and psychological history.

Hear a conversation with novelist Paul Theroux about searching for inspiration in sex, drugs and blindness.

Guests:

Paul Theroux, author of the new novel, "Blinding Light."