PASADENA, Calif.: On a quiet summer evening in June 1990, Pico Iyer sat in his family home in Santa Barbara, California, when suddenly, he was surrounded by walls of flames five stories high.

Aflame, Learning From Silence, the newest book by Pico Iyer, the bestselling author of more than a dozen books translated in more than 20 languages, is a powerful recital of Iyer’s experiences ...