Ask a Bookseller: 'Home/World: A Circumnavigation of Our Shared Earth' by Ben Hatke
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If dreary November weather has you longing to take a trip, Josh Monson of Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul has a recommendation for you: "Home/World: A Circumnavigation of Our Shared Earth" by Ben Hatke.
The author is best known for his graphic novels for kids, but this graphic memoir is for a general audience. Inspired by Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg and real-life stunt reporter Nellie Bly, who both went around the world in 80 days (or less) in the late 1800s, Hatke decides to see whether he can do the same, avoiding airplanes if possible.
“You’d think it'd be easier in the modern setting,” says Monson. “But it’s actually quite difficult because of difficult political situations, or borders, or the fact that there are almost no ocean liners crossing the Pacific or Atlantic anymore, and you can no longer book single fare travel on freighters like you used to be before the pandemic.”
The result is a travel narrative, told in word and image, of encounters across the world that emphasize hope and the kindness of strangers. Hatke took his sketchbook with him on the journey, and Monson says the graphic memoir is a nice balance of writing and ink-and-watercolor images, with “lovely views of Istanbul or these lovely little castle storybook European towns [that] lure you in.”
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