Lands of lost borders: out of bounds on the Silk Road
Bestsellers (Non-fiction), Canadian non-fiction, Canadian authors (Non-fiction), Travel and geography, Asian travel and geography, Award winning non-fiction
Human-transcribed braille
Summary
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer--had gone extinct. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars. Well along this path, Harris set off by bicycle down a… short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule. This trip was just a simulacrum of exploration, but Harris realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks, leaving footprints on another planet: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. And where she'd felt that most intensely was on a bicycle, on a bygone trading route. So Harris hit the Silk Road again with Yule, this time determined to bike it from beginning to end. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, she celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other--a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us. Bestseller. Winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize. 2018.