We Came, We Saw, We Left
A Family Gap Year
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Charlie Wheelan and his family do what others dream of: They take a year off to travel the world. This is their story.
What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre–COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family dogs to travel the world on a modest budget. Equal parts "how-to" and "how-not-to"—and with an eye toward a world emerging from a pandemic—We Came, We Saw, We Left is the insightful and often hilarious account of one family’s gap-year experiment.
Wheelan paints a picture of adventure and connectivity, juggling themes of local politics, global economics, and family dynamics while exploring answers to questions like: How do you sneak out of a Peruvian town that has been barricaded by the local army? And where can you get treatment for a flesh-eating bacteria your daughter picked up two continents ago? From Colombia to Cambodia, We Came, We Saw, We Left chronicles nine months across six continents with three teenagers. What could go wrong?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Charles Wheelan’s jaw-dropping memoir condenses nine months of world travel into one unputdownable book. We Came, We Saw, We Left documents the “gap year” Wheelan spent traversing the globe with his wife and three kids. This epic travelogue has everything: the good (breathtaking caves in the Amazon, zebra watching in Tanzania), the bad (dicey hostels in Bolivia, a flesh-eating parasite in Cambodia), and the totally bonkers (let’s just say there’s a chapter titled “The Exploding Penis”). The intrepid family’s wild journey makes for an amazing and sometimes cringe-inducing read, and Wheelan’s wonderfully droll sense of humor especially shines through when things go wrong. Reading this book reminded us that, often, life’s craziest moments can become cherished memories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wheelan (The Rationing), a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, delivers a humorous account of the year he spent traveling the world with his family. In 2016, Wheelan and his wife, Leah, embarked on a nine-month trip with their three children: Katrina, 18; Sophie, 16; and eighth-grader CJ. Starting in Colombia, where the kids momentarily go missing on a train platform, high-strung Charles and budget-conscious Leah haul their moody children across six continents, balancing moments of self-discovery with family meltdowns. They encounter "avocado-sized spiders" in the Amazon, notoriously horrendous Saigon traffic, visa problems in India, and an orphanage for albino children in Tanzania, and go "kiwi spotting" in New Zealand. Frequently anxious yet determined to enjoy himself, Wheelan offers plenty of self-effacing humor, amusing digressions ("Our experience was the opposite of what happened to George Bailey," referring to Jimmy Stewart's character in It's a Wonderful Life), and heartfelt observations (writing about friends they made along the way, "They are a kind, charming people with a deep respect for this unique part of the world. I felt sad to be leaving"). This rip-roaring adventure will especially appeal to those whose passports are collecting dust thanks to the pandemic.
