A boy sits on a river and puts his wooden boat to the water, a messenger quickly drifting downstream and announcing: Someone will follow. The boy became a man and a writer. And he did follow: In the tracks of the little boat of his childhood river, the Sihl in Zurich, he went as far as the Nile, the Amazon and the Yangtze. Hugo Loetscher takes stock of his life. He unfolds the themes of his life and work into a world-embracing autogeography, thus telling of the development of a global consciousness. Taking the reader along rivers, past bridges and canals to new shores, Hugo Loetscher's narrative flow is meandering, deep and effervescent with ideas and wit. The picture of a great writer takes shape, born unsolicited under the star constellation of the question mark. A doubter who knows that questions are often more beautiful than answers. And an incorrigible humanist.