From the Publisher
“Home Inside the Globe takes its place beside some of the best travel memoirs, but it also stands on its own as a new kind of reading experience. Gail Straub’s writing is infused with the pace of a poet and the grace of a mystic. We don’t just visit the Sahara and the Himalayas, Bali and Ireland, China and Russia, India and Jordan. We experience the world through Gail’s stumbles and risings, lessons and teachings, grief and healing. We see ourselves in Gail as a girl, as a young person, through her brave self-examination and work with activists around the world, through her losses and loves, and through the many cultures that have enriched her life. She shows us how travel and connection allow us all to revel in our glorious global differences while at the same time revealing, in her words, ‘a borderless realm where our common humanity unifies us.’”
—Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega Institute and best-selling author, Broken Open
“Gail Straub’s life’s passion has been to develop human potential and change the world, heart by heart, mind by mind. Which for over forty years, from the Sahara to China, she has accomplished. As you travel with her across magnificent landscapes into vastly different cultures, Straub’s brilliant visionary spirit radiates through the pages of this book. Her own story and the stories of the people she meets and learns from along the way create an enlightened community that invites you to join them. The enthusiasm for the good that the people we meet are capable of is so infectious you just may find your own heart opening to the certainty that, despite our differences, we are all one.”
—Beverly Donofrio, best-selling author, Riding in Cars with Boys
“Gail Straub’s new memoir is simply a tour de force. A book of this scope is ambitious to say the least, and Straub pulls it off brilliantly. Here we have masterful storytelling, sumptuous prose, and astonishing adventures in far-flung lands. But even more than that, in Straub, the reader encounters a highly refined consciousness that weaves together the story of one particular life and the story of human life writ large. When describing Straub’s life, and this work, one is compelled to use the word “epic.” Her memoir will live in the reader’s imagination long after the book is devoured. Highly recommended!”
—Stephen Cope, best-selling author, The Great Work of Your Life
“Gail Straub is the best kind of wizard with words. You can't read this luminous, heartbreaking memoir-as-travelogue without feeling Gail's hand on your arm, guiding you through a personal journey that circles the globe and digs deep into our shared humanity. It's all here: the girl's thirst for sensation, the woman's drive to connect, the crone's radiant wisdom. Traveling from Concepción to Timbuktu and beyond with this true world citizen is an inspiration, a joy, and a call to link arms.”
—Nina Shengold, award-winning playwright and author, Reservoir Year
“From an early age, Gail Straub has been driven by her desire to steep herself in other cultures, unfamiliar terrains, different societal norms and beliefs. Having spent significant periods of time traveling the globe, observing and absorbing other customs, other ways of living, she realized we have more in common with each other than in the ways we differ. She also saw what needed doing to help struggling people, and with her husband David Gershon, has spent her life working to affect change. And although Straub writes marvelously of countless adventures and revelations, and sometimes fear, perhaps the greatest adventure was within herself. And for her readers. Terrific book. I loved every word.”
—Abigail Thomas, best-selling author, A Three Dog Life
“This luminous memoir invites us into the wisdom that only comes by being willing to hear and answer the calling of one’s life. To travel the globe with Gail Straub is to allow the beauty of diversity to be the unifying force of our shared humanity. Her book teaches us that as we open to the expansive nature of the world and all its people, we become home inside the globe.”
—LeTonia Jones, poet and author, Black Girl at the Intersection
“In radiant, lyrical prose, Gail Straub takes us on a voyage like no other, both into little-known places across the globe and, most memorably, the inner realms of the soul. At times harrowing and heartbreaking, but also humorous and, ultimately, inspiring, this is a journey—led by a truly thoughtful, compassionate, and fiercely adventurous guide—that no reader will forget and, I believe, all readers will, in their own way, hope to emulate.”
—Andrew Carroll, best-selling author, War Letters and Behind the Lines
“Traveling these pages with Gail Straub through her spirited youth, passionate middle age, and wise elder years, we see the globe is an irresistible place. Over and over this deep seeking flâneur soars over borders, uncovering perennial truths and meeting citizens of the human family. It’s plain to see how the world shaped Gail Straub—leader, trailblazer, friend—and easier still to see how she helped shape our world. Home Inside the Globe is a must-read for any seeker, traveler, or lover of life.”
—Kate McGloughlin, artist and author, Requiem for Ashokan
“A breathtaking memoir of adventure, humanity, and healing, Gail Straub's Home Inside the Globe takes readers across continents, bridging the divides that separate us. Written with poetic prose and profound insight, it offers a stunning mosaic of courage, culture, and connection. This book is a powerful call to action for building a more compassionate world.”
—Loung Ung, best-selling author, First They Killed My Father
“This book arrives at the perfect moment. When our world feels stretched taut with the pull of opposing worldviews, Gail Straub reminds us that we are inextricably linked and unapologetically ONE. More than a memoir, Home Inside the Globe is a sacred compass, a guidebook on what it means to become a global citizen.”
—Rha Goddess, founder & CEO of Move The Crowd, and author, The Calling
