Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World » (Reprint)

Ewan McGregor was born in Perthshire in 1971. An actor who has appeared in more than thirty films — Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine, Moulin Rouge, and the second Star Wars trilogy among them — he rides an MV Augusta F4S and a KTM Duke. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

Charley Boorman was born in England, grew up in Ireland, and currently lives in London with his family. An actor whose first starring role was in Deliverance, he met his costar Ewan while shooting The Serpent's Kiss. He rides a Ducati 748 and is preparing for the2006 Paris — Dakar rally, if his wife lets him

It started as a daydream. Poring over a map of the world at home on quiet Saturday afternoon, Ewan McGregor - acclaimed actor and self-confessed bike nut - noticed that it was possible to ride all the way round the world, with just one short hop across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska. It was a revelation he couldn't get out of his head. So he picked up the phone and called his fellow actor-slash-biker friend Charley Boorman and told him it was time to hit the road...

Beginning in London, Ewan and Charley chased their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia; across the Pacific to Alaska; then down through Canada all the way to New York. Long Way Round is the result of their four month, 20,000 mile joyride. Featuring original diary entries, travel maps, mileage charts, and dozens of photographs, this is a freewheeling, fully charged, and uproariously entertaining book about two world-famous individuals who chose the road not taken... and made the journey worthwhile.

Publishers Weekly

Actors McGregor (Moulin Rouge; The Phantom Menace) and Boorman (Deliverance; Hope and Glory) left London by motorbike in April 2004, heading east. They traveled across Europe and Asia, flew over the Pacific and continued across North America to New York, all in four months. This travelogue of the adventure is a small miracle of persistence and speed, since McGregor and Boorman finished their trip mere months ago, and though in some places the rush job shows, it's readable and entertaining, told in the actors' alternating voices. Western Europe and North America, with their good roads and English speakers, held few surprises, but eastern Europe and Asia-the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia-were a moment-by-moment challenge, even with the authors riding top-of-the-line BMW cycles. Roads in the former Soviet nations were the biggest and most consistent obstacles, sometimes in such poor shape that the authors' progress slowed to less than 20 miles a day (and this on a 20,000-mile trip). People were another hurdle, from the Kalashnikov-toting coalminers of eastern Ukraine to the ever-present Kazakh police. But the riders met many others, like second-generation Chernobyl victims and street children in Ulaanbaatar, who make Mongolia's isolation palpable. Working under tight deadlines, the duo had little time or space for reflection, and the account often reads like the description of a race. The trip was an accomplishment, nevertheless, and, in its immediacy, so is this book. Maps, photos. Agent, Scott Waxman. (Nov. 2) Forecast: This will get a boost from the airing of a six-hour TV documentary of the trip that premiered on Bravo on October 28, and the authors' star quality ensures plenty of media coverage. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.