While there is plenty of sweat, fatigue and sunscreen as you would expect, and Harris is particularly interested in the stars and views of distant mountains, most of the text is a set of vignettes describing memorable people she met, but largely in terms of her own reactions to them.

The trip itself fills about three-quarters of the 290 pages, but Harris’s account of it focuses to a substantial extent on her subjective perceptions. Harris’s creation is to some extent autobiography masquerading as a travel tale. Lands Of Lost Borders: A Journey On The Silk Road, Kate Harris (HarperCollins, August 2018) Her travelling companion? We know her name, that she has red hair and is adept at turning cartwheels, but little else.

Their bikes? No description despite the fact that Harris was a cyclo-cross champion. She and her companion were constantly at risk from passing trucks and they presumably stopped at roadside stalls and had to continuously seek potable water, but we learn nothing about any of this. She starts well-their trip through Turkey is pretty well documented-but then Harris seems to have tired of taking notes. Harris does describe an almost year-long cycle trek from Turkey to Nepal and India, but her account unfortunately leaves us little wiser about conditions along her route today. I was too good at school … After being on an achievement bender most of my life, the prospect of withdrawal, of doing anything without external approval, or better yet acclamation, kept me obediently between the lines I couldn’t even recognize as lines. The lost borders of the title are not those of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative, but rather the borders that had been delimiting Harris’s life and outlook before she set off across Asia. The trip is in fact just a framework for extensive musings about Kate Harris. Kate Harris certainly made that trip, and she’s written a very readable book, but it’s only about selected aspects of her adventures. Well, if you are, this is not the book for you. You’re looking for tips on what to take, routes, currencies, visas. So you’re planning a trip on the Silk Road.

Land of lost borders kate harris