Anthony Bourdain's longtime assistant Laurie Woolever has completed the book the Parts Unknown and No Reservations host had begun working on when he died in France in 2018.

"World Travel: An Irreverent Guide" is meant to serve as a guide to several of Bourdain's favorite places. It's also meant to show the world what it was he loved so much about these places. The 480-page book offers both practical travel advice and a deeper look at Bourdain's life through personal essays from his family, friends, and colleagues.

In an excerpt published in Entertainment Weekly, Bourdain's brother Christopher wrote about the European trip that set his older brother's life of adventure in motion. The family cruised across the Atlantic on Cunard's Queen Mary and feasted on baskets of croissants, street cart waffles, and the Bourdain brothers' beloved steak frites.

"We all became enamored of, or in love with, or even a bit obsessed with, France, to varying degrees," Christopher Bourdain wrote. "We got the food bug, the travel bug, and the understanding that you could hang out with people from foreign countries, and learn things, and take pleasure in coming to understand them. This is where it all started."

Woolever, who worked with Bourdain for more than a decade and co-authored his final cookbook, "Appetites," leaned on episodes of Parts Unknown and No Reservations to source Bourdain's own words for the book. Each chapter features a custom illustration of Bourdain in his element from artist Wesley Allsbrook.

The book cover features an illustration of Bourdain eating at a street food stall in his beloved Vietnam. "World Travel: An Irreverent Guide" goes on sale April 20, 2021.

Meena Thiruvengadam is a Travel Leisure contributor who has visited 50 countries on six continents and 47 U.S. states. She loves historic plaques, wandering new streets and walking on beaches. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

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