Restless to leave， eager to return: this memoir in essays captures the unrelenting pull between the past and the present， between traveling the world and staying home。

Starting in a dreary Moscow hotel room in 1983， weaving back and forth to rural New England， and ending on a West Texas trail in 2020， Marcia DeSanctis tells stories
that span the globe and half a lifetime。 With intimacy and depth， over
quicksand in France， insomnia in Cambodia， up a volcano in Rwanda，
spinning through the eye of a snowstorm in Bismarck， and atop a dumpster
in her own backyard， this New York Times bestselling author， award-winning essayist and journalist for Vogue and Travel + Leisure immerses
us in places waiting to be discovered and some that may be more than
we’re up for。 She encounters spies， angels， leopards， shoes， the odd
rattlesnake， a random head of state， and many times over， the ghosts of
her past。 Each subsequent voyage leads to revelations about her search
for solitude， a capacity for adventure， and always， a longing for home