Travel Writing

Travel Writing

by PeterFerry (Author)

Synopsis

Pete Ferry is driving home from work one evening when he sees a car swerving dangerously on the road. He wants to keep out of its way, so he allows it to overtake - but as it does so he sees that the driver is a beautiful woman, she's half-naked or at least her clothes are hanging off her, and it's clear that she's drunk or something isn't right. He follows at a safe distance for a while, wondering what he should do - call the police? Flag down some help? Then he finds himself at a traffic light, next to her car, and he realises that now is the moment to do something. He could get out and tell her to pull over, or see if she needs help. But he hesitates, unsure, the lights change and her car lurches forward straight into a tree, killing her instantly... This is the story that Pete tells his class of high-school students in the wealthy suburb of Chicago where he teaches and writes. But did this actually happen, or is it just an elaborate tale he concocts to illustrate the power of story-telling to his restless teenage charges? Was it really an accident? Could Pete have prevented it? Who was the beautiful woman, and why can't he stop thinking about her? What might his obsession mean to his relationship with his girlfriend, Lydia? With humour, tenderness, and suspense, Travel Writing takes the reader on fascinating journeys, both geographical and psychological, playing with our notions of fact and fiction and questioning whether the lines between them are more blurred than we first expect.

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Quantity

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 07 Aug 2008

ISBN 10: 0701181923
ISBN 13: 9780701181925
Book Overview: A clever, gentle first novel - that comes with a glowing endorsement from Dave Eggers - about a love story and a mystery, about story telling, the blurred line between fact and fiction, and an early midlife crisis...

Media Reviews
Travel Writing is an absolute pleasure to read. It is ensnaring, funny, suspenseful, smart and poignant.... Peter Ferry fits stories within stories like mirrors reflecting mirrors to expose our assumptions about fact and the imagination. When his protagonist declares, 'I am a teacher and a storyteller in that order, ' he offers a clue to the mission underliying this immensely entertaining, keenly conceived and brilliantly realized puzzle of a novel. Ferry is offering us a covert refresher course in the revelatory power of story, the responsibility of writers and the unending hunger for truth. --Donna Seaman Chicago Tribune (08/02/2008)
Author Bio
PETER FERRY is a teacher, writer, and editor. He has written textbooks for Rand McNally and travel pieces for the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times. His short stories have appared in StoryQuarterly, Overtures, the New Review of Literature, and McSweeney's. He has won the Illinois Arts Council Award for Short Fiction. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.