SIGNS OF LIFE

From the Arctic Circle to Patagonia, an intrepid cyclist and doctor recounts an epic journey.

Physician and travel writer Fabes was working in a prestigious London hospital when, after a few years of rotating through departments, he faced the decision of choosing his own specialty. “I sensed a narrowing not just of my field of practice, but in my life and opportunities,” he writes in his vivid debut memoir. Nearing 30, he felt at a crossroads, impelled to seek “more space, more time, more risk.” Recalling a cycling trip with his brother down the coast of Chile, he decided to take a leave from medicine and embark on a rigorous adventure: cycling the length of six continents. The author’s animated report of his trip of more than 53,000 miles—and the crossing of “102 international borders”—highlights perils and drama: weather (monsoons, snow, hail, sandstorms, debilitating heat); wildlife, including antelopes, monkeys, and warthogs; insects (huge spiders, mosquitoes, leeches, a Peruvian giant centipede, fire ants, and “all manner of flying nasties”); a volcano belching out “thick plumes”; “cranky immigration officials”; and frequent damage to his trusty bike. Physical ailments often were severe, including boils, rashes, and dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus that laid him low for 10 days and nearly killed him. When he wasn’t camped by roadsides, he spent nights in guesthouses, barns, schools, churches, and assorted rooms infested with fleas, bedbugs, or other vermin. Cycling confronted Fabes with evidence of oppression and exploitation, poverty and vulnerability; yet, invited to visit several clinics, he saw evidence, as well, of “connections, empathy and hope.” Overall, he admits, it was “the intense unpredictability of being outside in wild places that I treasured most, the various erratic, overlapping sensations I was left with: fear, despair, transcendence, solitude, weariness and awe. Upheavals of thought.”

A brisk, panoramic view of peoples and lands.