Name: Letters to Zerky
Brand: Nickelodeon Press (US)
SKU: 9780982138410
Price: 15.99 GBP
Availability: InStock

Letters to Zerky

A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son & a Road Trip Around the World

By (author): Bill Raney, By (author): JoAnne Walker Raney

Published by Nickelodeon Press (US)

In Stock

£15.99

Format: Paperback
Pages: 436
Illustrations: 9 colour maps, 27 b/w maps, 11 colour photos & 21 b/w photos
ISBN: 9780982138410
Publication Date: 30-Apr-2012

Subjects:
Memoirs
Travel writing

Quantity

A buoyant, bittersweet and often plaintively gorgeous travel memoir by Raney, writer and founder of the famous Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz, California. Raney's debut book follows the arc of a year-long expedition around the world, launched in 1967, at the height of "the summer of love in a summer of death". In San Francisco, where the author lived with his wife JoAnne, hippies and beatniks flooded the streets, and new reports arrived every day from the bloody conflict in Vietnam. The couple decided to decamp for Europe, where the dollar was strong and the possibilities seemed endless. Along for the ride is Tarzan, a fiery dachshund, and a baby boy named Eric Xerxes Raney, known as Zerky. For a while, this quirky little family made its way across the Continent, camping in open fields, cavorting on beaches and scrambling through the Swiss Alps. The narrative is built on letters Raney wrote to Zerky who would presumably be too young to remember the breadth of these adventures -- and diary entries by JoAnne, a fastidious chronicler of the far-flung. "That there might be a world beyond Europe, a world you could drive to, was something that never occurred to us until six months later", the author remembers, near the beginning of the book. Soon enough, the Raneys caterwauled through Turkey, Pakistan, India and lran -- a journey that would prove difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate in these pitched political times. In Kabul, Afghanistan, they vividly pick their "way through random passageways and alleyways that were left between buildings at the time of their construction". In Eastern Turkey, they face down a gaggle of armed and angry soldiers. The adventure quotient here is high, but the main ballast of the book is emotional. Shortly after returning from the expedition, JoAnne, pregnant with her second child, died of an aneurism, and within a year, Zerky was killed while playing near his family's home. The book remains as a testament to the power of the human spirit -- to wander, endure and remember. A chronicle of travels through a bygone world.

Combined with JoAnne's diary entries from the time, the book is a compelling and poignant read. The glimpses into their lives and the world at the time -- including travel into what was then Czechoslovakia, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China are invaluable. - Kyle Wagner, in the Denver Post May 2012

The book will appear to a wide audience, including those interested in travel, Middle Eastern, history and simply a well-written story of adventure. It is a lovely tribute to a little boy who crossed cultural divides to bring people together. Zerky was the common denominator that brought us together with the peoples and culture of the world during this thirteen-month-long adventure between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Bill writes. He was our passport to the world. - Christine Canfield, ForeWord Magazine June 2012

The book remains as a testament to the power of the human spirit-to wander, endure and remember. A chronicle of travels through a bygone world. Kirkus Reviews June 2012

a gently persistent message not to wait, not to squander, not to miss anything." - This Midlife Thing Magazine

As a travel book, "Letters to Zerky" presents not only a portrait of different places, but of different times. One of the reasons that Raney was moved to put out the book was that the Iraq war, and other events in the Middle East, made Americans much more aware of events in the region than they had been before. In that year of travel, the Raneys experienced several bizarre moments: being held at gunpoint by a group of Turkish soldiers, watching their young son being taken away by a Persian tribesman on horseback. - Wallace Baine, Santa Cruz Sentinel

The author is a fantastic story-teller and the little family experience breathtaking landscapes, people, cities, cultures and exhilarating adventure. - Whitney Love

Light some incense, dust off your beanbag chair, pour some jug wine, and put your favorite Grateful Dead album on the stereo. Get ready for a journey to the past when the world seemed simpler, Americans were loved, and a van, a backpack and a smile could get you anywhere you needed to go. - Brandon Wilson, Lowell Thomas Award-Winning author of Along the Templar Trail and Yak Butter Blues