Coasting: A Private Journey

Put Jonathan Raban on a boat and the results will be fascinating, and never more so than when he's sailing around the serpentine, two-thousand-mile coast of his native England. In this acutely perceived and beautifully written book, the bestselling author of Bad Land turns that voyage-which coincided with the Falklands war of 1982-into an occasion for meditations on his country, his childhood, and the elusive notion of home.

Whether he's chatting with bored tax exiles on the Isle of Man, wre...