Far and away

Essays chronicle the author's activist stint on the Moscow barricades in 1991, his 2002 account of cultural rebirth in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and other stories of profound change. Psychologist, lecturer and activist Andrew Solomon's essays about places undergoing seismic political and cultural shifts, around the globe and across a generation. A testament to the importance of travel and bearing witness, they encompass South Africa and Brazil, China and Romania, Guatemala and the Solomon Islands, exploring history as it unfolds, largely through the people who are creating and being shaped by it. He learns from former political prisoners, transgender bartenders, rape victims, and shamans. He describes staring down tanks on the barricades in Moscow during the putsch that ended the Soviet Union, being left adrift at the Great Barrier Reef and brought in for questioning in Qaddafi's Libya, and carousing all night in Kabul with musicians finally able to play again after the US invasion drove away the Taliban. Far and Away chronicles a life's journey to the nexus of hope, courage, and the uncertainty of lived experience, while illuminating the development of Solomon's singularly insightful and empathetic worldview. These essays are rooted in intimate, deeply moving stories that reveal and revel in our common humanity.--Adapted from dust jacket.