I was delighted to interview my writer and dear friend Kate Harris just before the release of her new book, Lands of Lost Borders (Knopf Canada). We discussed the author-editor relationship, the purpose of travel literature, how paths diverge in life, and of course, Virginia Woolf. Check it out on Hazlitt.
Some of the early buzz for Lands of Lost Borders…
“Kate Harris packs more exuberant spirit, intrepid charm, wit, poetry and beauty into her every paragraph than most of us can manage in a lifetime. Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven’t felt for years. It’s a modern classic.”
“Kate Harris arrives among us like a meteor—a hurtling intelligence, inquiring into the nature of political borders and the meaning of crossing over. The honesty behind her self-doubt, her championing of simple human friendship, and her sheer determination to explore what she does not know, compel you to travel happily alongside her in Lands of Lost Borders.”
“This is a hymn to the pure love of travel: a brave and astonishing journey.”
“Here you have everything you could possibly want in a travel narrative: a sense of wonder and discovery, the raw texture of the Silk Road seen inch by inch, on a bicycle, in sleet and sun, up at 17,000 feet and down under the guard rails of a forbidden (and possibly pointless) border. All the way the author’s quicksilver intelligence and curiosity shine a light on everything in her path. Kate Harris is a true explorer, a goof, and a sublime writer.”
“This fascinating book, about an unbridled desire for exploration, completely thrilled me. Getting to ride alongside Kate on her Silk Road journey is the literary adventure of a lifetime.”
“Old cliché: I couldn’t put it down. But beyond the fact that Kate’s story hooked me, I realized that I was witnessing the emergence of a formidable voice speaking startlingly original things about the world. I can’t remember coming upon a first book that so dazzled me.”
Leave a Reply