Fifty Miles Wide: Cycling Through Israel and Palestine

BY THE AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR "Sayarer's thoughtful, meditative travelogue feels very important . . . [An] exploration of how people persevere in the darkest of circumstances" Guardian "It conveys powerfully what life is like for people on both sides of 'the world's most entrenched impasse'. At the same time, it's full of free spirits and the joys of freewheeling" Telegraph Ten years after breaking a world record for cycling around the world, award-winning travel writer Julian Sayarer returns to two wheels on the roads of Israel and occupied Palestine. His route weaves from the ancient hills of Galilee, along the blockaded walls of the Gaza Strip and down to the Bedouin villages of the Naqab Desert. He speaks with Palestinian hip-hop artists who wonder if music can change their world, Israelis hoping that kibbutz life can, and Palestinian cycling clubs determined to keep on riding despite the army checkpoints and settlers that bar their way. Pedalling through a military occupation, in the chance encounters of the roadside, a bicycle becomes a vehicle of more than just travel, and cuts through the tension to find a few simple truths, and some hope. As the miles pass, the journey becomes a meditation on making change - how people in dark times keep their spirit, and go on believing that a different world is possible. "The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE

About the Author :
JULIAN SAYARER cycled a half dozen times across Europe to his second nation of Turkiye before before breaking a world record for a circumnavigation by bicycle, and going on to write Life Cycles (2014). He is the winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Writing Award for Interstate (2016), an account of hitchhiking through middle America, and is the author of Messengers (2016), All at Sea (2017), Fifty Miles Wide (2020), Ondaatje Prize-longlisted Iberia (2021), and Turkiye (2023). Julian combines a background in political science to create a critically acclaimed travel writing style - politics at roadsides. In this 12mph view of the world in passing, he uses human stories and journeys to document global issues for a broad audience. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian, Financial Times, Aeon Magazine, and in numerous cycling publications.

Review :
Sayarer's thoughtful, meditative travelogue feels very important . . . An exploration of how people persevere in the darkest of circumstances His book took courage on the road and is adventurous on the page. It conveys powerfully what life is like for people on both sides of "the world's most entrenched impasse". At the same time, it's full of free spirits and the joys of freewheeling. Sayarer's thoughtful, meditative travelogue actually feels very important. This is less a personal adventure than an exploration of how people persevere in the darkest of circumstances Vivid and meditative . . . Hope is found, again and again, nowhere more so than in this wonderful book A great read by a great travel writer. Takes me right back to some very special places Sayarer is a brilliantly thoughtful writer ... One can't help thinking that the future of travel writing lies in this adventurous, post-modern genre Sayarer has made something of a specialism of reporting on the world from the roadside. On the Road for the Occupy Generation Sayarer's love of the open road and his ability to evoke the beauty of travelling by bike are a potent combination that makes you itch to go cycling