THE WOUNDS THAT BIND US

A harrowing memoir about a mother who set out to visit former war zones in a Land Rover with her 3-year-old daughter.

When she was 16, Shinn lost both her legs below the knee after an initially misdiagnosed bout of bacterial meningitis that left her with a large malpractice settlement from the hospital. Fitted with prostheses but missing the kind of running that had given structure to her high school life, she took up off-road driving. In her late 20s, in 2001, divorced and with a young child, she decided to spend some of her settlement on a trip with her daughter, Celie, to raise awareness of the impact of land mines. Her plan was to visit Bosnia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Vietnam, and El Salvador. After she had spent a year in England interning at a Land Rover training school, she and a friend drove her Land Rover through Bosnia, leaving Celie with the girl's father. After that, she and Celie spend the rest of their time in a little town in Greece, where Shinn got pregnant. The narrative alternates between Shinn's misadventures during the trip, some of which are bound to leave readers worrying about Celie's welfare, and her memories of the past, when she was raised by an adoptive family she describes as abusive. While readers may disapprove of some of Shinn’s actions, she gives us plenty of memorable scenes and characters, including an overnight stay in a brothel, the friends she made and lost along the way, her run-ins with the law, and her near-death experiences while precariously driving the Land Rover. To the author’s credit, she doesn't pretend to have accomplished more than she did, and she doesn't sugarcoat her many mistakes. Readers may not want to follow in her footsteps, but they will never be bored with her as a companion.

A scruffy take on female adventure travel.