The Wander Year

A collection of humorous and moving encounters with a sublime world and the extraordinary souls who fill it.

Bestselling author Mike McIntyre (The Kindness of Strangers) and his longtime girlfriend, Andrea, are itching for a break from their routines. So they rent out their California home--dog and cat included--and embark on a yearlong trip around the world. The couple is swept up in the adventure of a lifetime: traversing the Sahara on camels, trekking in the Himalayas, scrambling over Cambodian temples, crossing the Andes, scaling a New Zealand glacier.

The book traces the odyssey in forty-eight colorful dispatches from six continents. Whether barreling across India with a former tank driver at the wheel, getting clipped by Vietnam's oldest barber, touring a notorious Bolivian prison with inmates as guides, or braving a cyclone in Fiji on a rubber raft, McIntyre taps his signature wit to convey the joys, perils, and frustrations of prolonged travel. He also writes eloquently of such touching moments as flying kites with a boy in Indonesia and sleeping under the stars in Morocco.

Funny, heartwarming, and full of expert tips, The Wander Year will inspire and entertain veteran and armchair travelers alike.

"A superb writer."--Los Angeles Times

"A reader's dream."--San Diego Union-Tribune