Saudade reviewed in the Star's roundup of travel books

Anik See's Saudade is another title that requires explanation. It's a Portuguese word with no direct English translation. But a Portuguese friend tells me it means a longing for somewhere, someone or an experience that is now past.

For See, who travels widely but divides the rest between Canada and the Netherlands, it seems to represent relishing a simple life and regretting modern, stifling intrusions on old shores (as in new developments in old Amsterdam).

Saudade finds her at home in Alberta, mourning her grandmother, being enlivened by a dump of a town on a sideroad in Oz, wandering the Northwest Territories, sitting in a bar in Amsterdam discussing Albrecht Dürer, the Golden Rectangle and typography with a friend who'd designed a three-legged compass that could draw an ellipse rather than a circle.

Typography may be the keenest of See's many interests and it shows in her design of Saudade, using bold Colophon for the titles and Garamond for the typeface. It's a pleasure to hold and to look at.