An Innocent Abroad: Life-Changing Trips from 35 Great Writers

Don George, Editor (2014)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

An Innocent Abroad, not to be confused with Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, is another strong collection of travel writing edited by Don George and published by Lonely Planet.  This time the focus is how travel helps in an understanding and an embrace of innocence lost as a way to learn and as a rite of passage.  35 great writers contribute, including notable travel writers like Pico Iyer, Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester, Jan Morris and Lonely Planet's Tony Wheeler.  Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, has a compelling story on commemorating 45, the age her mother died, while traveling in Andorra.  Some of the best stories come from writers not necessarily well known for travel, including Dave Eggers, Richard Ford, David Baldacci, Sloane Crosley, and Alexander McCall Smith.
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OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL WRITING COLLECTIONS - DON GEORGE
Don George is arguably the world's leading editor of travel writing collections, having a long career as the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet and as a frequent contributor for National Geographic Traveler magazine.  Learn more about Don George here.

GREAT QUOTES:

"As long as we continue to venture into unfamiliar situations, to open our hearts and minds to foreign ways, as long as we are able to keep losing our innocence abroad, that innocence will never end - and our appreciation of the world, our embrace of this unembracable whole, will extend, and extend, and extend"
- Don George, introduction to An Innocent Abroad

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • Alexander McCall Smith is a Scottish author best known as the creator of popular The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, an episodic novel that feature the first female private investigator in Botswana. 
  • One of the contributors, Sloane Crosley, the best selling author of the fantastically titled I Was Told There'd Be Cake (2008) was the editor for the 2011 version of the Best American Travel Writing series.
  • While David Baldacci isn't perhaps known as a travel writer, he has written over 25 novels that virtually all have been best-sellers.  Most of his books are thrillers that revolve around political intrigue, crime, and military operations.  He is probably best known for Absolute Power (1995), which was soon turned into a popular film starring Clint Eastwood.