Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman - Softcover

Alice-steinbach

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553813404 ISBN 13: 9780553813401

Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

American journalist Alice Steinbach took a year off to live in four cities - Paris, Venice, London and Oxford - when she realized she had entered a new phase of life. Her sons had graduated from college; she had been divorced for a long time; she was a successful journalist. While there was nothing really wrong with her life, she felt restless. Could she live independently of her family, her friends, her career? Steinbach searches for the answer to this provocative question firstly in Paris, where she finds a soul mate in a Japanese man; in Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to marry, and in the evocative cities of Oxford and Venice. Her trip is peppered with accounts of the exotic strangers she meets, her reflections on life and the observational postcards she wrote to herself during her year away. Colourful, inspiring and beautifully told, Without Reservations will take the reader on a unique voyage of discovery into a woman's life, as she evolves a new one.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“A rich account of one woman’s journey through Europe and into the self.”
—Us Weekly

“I loved going along with Alice Steinbach as she goes off on this rare, wonderful adventure, an escape into discovering herself and some of the truly magical places in this world.”
—Dominick Dunne

“More than a chronicle of the writer’s search for self-discovery, Without Reservations is a lovely travelogue.” —Chicago Tribune

“The best books, like the best vacations, contain unexpected delights, sur-prises that enrich the soul as well as the senses. This is a book about love, and longing, and the passage of time. It’s about hope, and courage, and the resiliency of memory. This book is a feast. Bon appétit!”
—The Des Moines Register

“Beautifully written, clear, insightful, thoughtful . . . Steinbach’s book should be taken in slowly and savored all the way."
—St. Petersburg Times

From the Inside Flap

"In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alice Steinbach. "For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow." But somehow she had become dependent in quite another way. "I had fallen into the habit . . . of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me." But who was she away from the people and things that defined her? In this exquisite book, Steinbach searches for the answer to this question in some of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world: Paris, where she finds a soul mate; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. Beautifully illustrated with postcards from her journeys, this revealing and witty book transports you into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0553813404
• ISBN 13: 9780553813401
• Binding: Paperback