RUBIES AND RUCKSACKS: AN ASIAN ODYSSEY

“I’m a-walking down Nathan Road with a strut in my legs like I’m dancing, crowds thick as steam off the paving, cars pressed cheek to cheek and blowing fury, shop sign neons stretching, into the middle of the road, competing, elbowing the other side, and hissing sparks, red and orange.”

Set in the pre-internet era of the 80s and 90s, when Burma denied visas to journalists, Beijing had one budget hotel, the USSR still existed, and the best currency was Johnny Walker Red, this journey is less Four Seasons, more Four Cockroaches in a Dorm.

A coming-of-age celebration of wanderlust for anyone who’s ever suspected that certainty is overrated; and that the only way to find out where you belong is to throw away the map!

Reviews available on Goodreads and Amazon.

All author profits from the sale of this book go to charitable causes for children in need.

* The quote is from Hong Kong, a Love Story, semifinalist of Action, Spectacle Editors’ 2026 Poetry & Prose contest and the blockbuster first story in the book, wherein our protagonist meets the Brotherhood and sits down with them for a meal of goat head stew.