BY THE AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR

Sayurer's thoughtful, meditative travelogue feels very important. It is an exploration of how people persevere in the darkest of circumstances. The narrative powerfully conveys what life is like for people on both sides of 'the world's most entrenched impasse'. At the same time, it's full of free spirits and the joys of freewheeling.

Ten years after breaking a world record for cycling around the world, award-winning travel writer Julian Sayarer returns to two wheels on the roads of Israel and occupied Palestine. His route weaves from the ancient hills of Galilee, along the blockaded walls of the Gaza Strip, and down to the Bedouin villages of the Naqab Desert.

He speaks with Palestinian hip-hop artists who wonder if music can change their world, Israelis hoping that kibbutz life can, and Palestinian cycling clubs determined to keep on riding despite the army checkpoints and settlers that bar their way. Pedaling through a military occupation, in the chance encounters of the roadside, a bicycle becomes a vehicle of more than just travel, cutting through the tension to find a few simple truths and some hope.

As the miles pass, the journey becomes a meditation on making change—how people in dark times keep their spirit and go on believing that a different world is possible. The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe, and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. Sayarer is a marvelous example of a writer who goes all the way for a story and tells it with fire.