An interweaving of two love stories that span generations begins in the 1940s as Althea Barnes becomes enamored of both India and a Hindu priest, and continues with her granddaughter who has an affair with a revolutionary in contemporary Peru.
Two generations of women struggle with love—and journey to remote corners of the world—in this “remarkably passionate and engaging” novel (San Francisco Chronicle). From a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, When Mountains Walked tells of two parallel love affairs, years apart. In the 1940s, Althea Baines follows her seismologist husband to the heart of the Indian subcontinent to trace the origins of earthquakes. Here, awakening to a form of spirituality she had never imagined, she eventually finds solace with a Hindu priest. Years later, her granddaughter Maggie follows her own idealistic husband to a canyon in central Peru to set up a health clinic. Alive to the culture and the place, Maggie falls recklessly in love with a revolutionary leader and follows him on an apocalyptic trip into the rain forest. As the lives of the two women echo and illuminate each other, and each is swept up in her own time by powerful forces, “this superb novel sets the mountains in motion—shaking up relations between sexes, generations, and rich nations and poor” (Newsday). “A gifted storyteller . . . When Mountains Walked subtly questions how much is too much to sacrifice in a relationship.” —The Wall Street Journal “This is a book you mention to your friends.” —Francine Prose, author of Lovers at the Chameleon Club
God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.
A Literary Guide to the Mountains of New England Commentary by William Howarth Walking with Thoreau features Henry David Thoreau's writings on nine New England mountains. William Howarth's illuminating commentary, printed alongside Thoreau's text, allows the presentday hiker to retrace Thoreau's footsteps up some of New England's most popular mountain destinations.
Tony Anderson set out in the summer of 1998 to walk through Georgia. He wanted particularly to visit the Georgian mountain tribes - Tush, Khevsurs, Ratchuelians and Svans - to discover if they shared a common mountain culture, and to test the old idea of the Caucasus as an impenetrable barrier from sea to sea. From Azerbaijan to Svaneti, Anderson found communities where the old customs and beliefs still triumphantly survive, despite years of Communist oppression and the terrible uncertainties since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout his journey Anderson refers back to many other visits to Georgia, to the politics of independence, to the war in Abkhazia and Ossetia, to the civil war and Shevardnadze's accession to power, to the history of these people at one of the great crossroads of the world. It remains an abiding mystery that Georgia has managed to survive at all, devastated time and again by the vagabond hordes from the steppes and torn between the mighty empires that struggled over it. But survive it has with a vibrant culture still intact and, in the mountains, still deeply connected to its ancient ways.
A guide to 20 of popular walking routes on the MacGillycuddy's Reeks contains full-colour maps specially commissioned from the Ordnance Survey, photographs and map references. This guide also encompasses the history of the area, its geology and natural history, its place names and people. It offers useful information on travel and accommodation.
Trekking 500 miles on the ancient Camino de Santiago was not just an item for Russ Eanes to check off his bucket list. It was a journey he had dreamed of taking for decades. At age 61, with his children grown, he was too young to retire but wise enough to know that he needed to reorient the hurried pace of his life. He left his work and took a sabbatical to "reset" himself and the first step was to head to the Camino. With everything he needed in a 16-pound pack and, equipped with a set of seven simple principles, he took off from St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to walk, as pilgrims have for twelve centuries, across Spain, to realize his dream. It was the Walk of a Lifetime. In a style that is part personal memoir and part travel memoir, he combines history, spirituality, coffee, culture and humor into an engaging journey of personal rediscovery.
A passionate, thought-provoking exploration of walking as a political and cultural activity, from the author of Orwell's Roses Drawing together many histories--of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores--Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers. She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction--from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton's Nadja--finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.
Floundering in her second career, the one she’s always wanted, forty-eight year old Cheryl Suchors resolves that, despite a fear of heights, her mid-life success depends on hiking the highest of the grueling White Mountains in New Hampshire. All forty-eight of them. She endures injuries, novice mistakes, and the heartbreaking loss of a best friend. When breast cancer threatens her own life, she seeks solace and recovery in the wild. Her quest takes ten years. Regardless of the need since childhood to feel successful and in control, climbing teaches her mastery isn’t enough and control is often an illusion. Connecting with friends and with nature, Suchors redefines success: she discovers a source of spiritual nourishment, spaces powerful enough to absorb her grief, and joy in the persistence of love and beauty. 48 Peaks inspires us to believe that, no matter what obstacles we face, we too can attain our summits.
A guidebook to 30 graded walks in Spain’s Southern Catalunya. Exploring the beautiful scenery of els Ports and the Tarragona mountains, the walks are suitable for beginner and experienced walkers alike. Day walks range from 4 to 21km (2–13 miles) and can be enjoyed in 2–6 hours. A 2-day, circular trek encompassing Sant Roc and Arnes is also described in 2 stages covering 47km (29 miles). Sketch maps are included Detailed information on planning, accommodation and local history Highlights include the Cardó and Montsia massifs Easy access from Barcelona, Valencia and Reus