«What does an Icelandic think of the surge of tourists that floods their country? Do the people of Amsterdam still champion their tradition of tolerance and openness to the world? Why are the Japanese crazy for African American music?»

THE PASSENGER is a book-magazine that brings together long reads, investigative journalism, literary reportage and narrative essays, with the aim of telling the story of the life of a place and its inhabitants, understanding its shifting culture, the development of its identity, the debates, the issues, the problems, and the wounds. Fragments that together build a wide-ranging picture.

A series of features complements the texts: significant and surprising infographics; original illustrations; recommendations from a famous author of a book, a film, an album; a section of «false myths» debunked; and others.

In addition, in collaboration with the photography agency Prospekt, each issue features original, commissioned photographs by an international photographer sent to the country to document the most significant stories.

The logo is a reference to Huginn and Muninn, two crows of the Norse mythology, associated with the god Odin, that travel the world bringing news and information back to their master. Odin sends them out at dawn to gather intelligence and they return in the evening, sit on the shoulders of the god and whisper what they saw into his ears. In Norse language Huginn means «thought», while Muninn «memory».

THE PASSENGER is a project of the Italian publishing house, Iperborea, which specialises in Northern European literature. After over thirty years spent exploring the North, like Odin’s crows, Iperborea now opens to the rest of the world, travelling far and wide to search for and publish the best of the «geographic» long form, remaining faithful to the criteria that inform its editorial line: relevance of themes, quality of writing, as well as permanence, shunning current events to focus on the present, to offer an understanding of what is contemporary rather than what is merely recent.

For this reason, THE PASSENGER can also be read as a one-of-a-kind «travel guide», which does not replace the traditional ones, but complements them, and has, above all, a unique quality, not just in Italy but also internationally. There is no lack of guides, magazines, websites and apps that focus on the where, how and when of a destination. What THE PASSENGER wants to answer is why.

The Passenger is also available in English, through a partnership with Europa Editions, in Spanish, through GeoPlaneta, and in Portuguese, through Âyiné Editora.