As readers, we sometimes seek escape into elaborate fictional worlds, be it Margaret Atwood's Gilead or Patricia Highsmith's Ripley-verse. But at other times—especially when we have travel on the brain—there's a different set of books we gravitate toward: ones that help us experience a real destination, guided by the first-hand knowledge of an author who knows it well.
It's been a banner year for these kinds of works. Whether it's Jia Tolentino deconstructing her Texas upbringing in Trick Mirror, André Aciman returning to Alexandria, Egypt, in his Call Me By Your Name follow-up Find Me, or Angie Cruz flying between her beloved Washington Heights, New York, and the Dominican Republic in Dominicana, 2019 has seen many authors take time to compare the homes they've left with the homes they've found elsewhere. For some, it was a choice to leave. Others weren't so lucky. But whether in fiction or memoir, all have used their latest, hotly anticipated works to take us along for the ride.
In the following interviews and essays, seven of the year's most celebrated authors discuss these journeys in detail—and reveal their greatest travel experiences and tips. Look no further: Your fall reading list is here.
André Aciman's book locations are secret homecomings
After Call Me By Your Name inspired a generation of travelers to hightail it to Italy, Find Me sees Elio, Oliver, and Elio's father Samuel spread out across the European continent and beyond. In an exclusive essay, Aciman shares how walking the three characters through the places of his childhood was a form of release in his own life. Read more here.
Jia Tolentino leans on her travels to look at the world today
The New Yorker staff writer has perhaps the sharpest pen in the country when it comes to understanding and critiquing contemporary American life. Her first book, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion leaves no 2019 trend unturned, be it Sweetgreen salads, scam artists, or the corporatization of the feminist movement. To understand how we got to this point, Tolentino frequently turns her focus in Trick Mirror inward to the travels of her youth, proving that the only way to see America for what it is is in contrast to the places we travel. Read more here.
Dina Nayeri fears "being stuck to a land"
In 2017, the rave reception to author Dina Nayeri's Guardian essay on being an "ungrateful refugee" led to this year's publication of The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You. Facing religious persecution, Nayeri fled Iran as a child, spending two years in Dubai and Rome before securing asylum in Oklahoma. An American life that began with Nayeri living in refugee hostels would eventually lead to her accepting a consulting position at McKinsey & Company, before becoming a writer with one of the clearest voices out there on the shifting identities every refugee must learn to manage. Read more here.
Home is a moving target for Jaquira Diaz
Jaquira Diaz's memoir Ordinary Girls—already being called the next Educated—tells the author's story of growing up between Miami Beach and Puerto Rico, hoping that one of them would ultimately feel like home. From nights sleeping on Florida streets to how it felt to be rejected after returning to her neighborhood, Diaz leaves nothing out of the story—a large part of the reason the book can be found on just about every must-read list this fall. Read more here.
Leslie Jamison's essay collection includes an ode to the Newark AirTrain
Leslie Jamison has long been known as a force in American writing for both her intellect and empathy, be it on her journey to getting sober, or tracking the world's loneliest whale. But in her latest work, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, Jamison offers herself up as a microphone for others to speak in to. Alongside the story of each new person and place in the book, Jamison draws connections to her own life—a challenging dance that can only be pulled off by the most masterful of writers. Read more here.
Leaving New York City changed how Angie Cruz tells stories
Angie Cruz's debut novel Dominicana tells the story of Ana Canción, a 15 year-old girl who moves to New York City for marriage to a man twice her age. But when her husband is called home to a Dominican Republic steeped in turmoil, Ana stays in Manhattan, now free to experience the joys and pains of the city all on her own. The protagonist's travels in the novel follow the course of Cruz's own, who still balances her time between the two countries. Read more here.
Namwali Serpell's best ideas come to her on planes and trains
Zambia past, present, and imagined come to life in Namwali Serpell's The Old Drift, a magical realist tale of three separate families whose fortunes intersect over a century. The novel might have received the most effusive book review of the year upon publication, in which Salman Rushdie welcomed Serpell to "the world stage." Not that it was an easy feat: Serpell says writing the book took her almost 20 years. Read more here.
