An illustrated travelogue that brilliantly captures artist and illustrator Emma Fick's epic train journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway-from Beijing through Mongolia to Moscow-including more than 200 watercolor illustrations and handwritten text that includes cultural and historical information as well as invaluable travel tips.
In May 2015, on a trip through the Baltics and Scandinavia, artist and illustrator Emma Fick and her boyfriend (now husband) Helvio discovered a worn copy of the Trans-Siberian Handbook at a secondhand shop in Helsinki. Many travelers from around the globe had used the guide to journey on the longest train ride in the world. Emma and Helvio took their find as a sign to embark on their own adventure on the legendary railway that has captured the imaginations and curiosities of many travelers and explorers since its construction a century ago.
A year and a half later, with Trans-Siberian Handbook in hand, they boarded the train in Beijing. Their odyssey was just beginning.
Border Crossings is the chronicle of their unforgettable 26-day, 8-city journey across Asia to Moscow. Emma offers a concise history of the railway and in vivid, visual language, takes you across a vast landscape of rural villages and bustling urban centers, through open food markets brimming with delicacies and a snowy mountain wilderness dotted with clusters of gers-nomadic homes.
Emma's detailed observations and lush descriptions, accompanied by detailed colorful illustrations, bring this remarkable journey of discovery and adventure-the landscapes, food, people and cultures-to life. Experience drinking salty milk tea, eating shoe sole cake (fried cakes shaped like shoe soles piled high and topped with milk curds and hard candies), and riding camels in Mongolia. In Russia, wander through a snow-draped countryside filled with stands of birch trees, explore the wonders of freshwater Lake Baikal-the source of omul, a ubiquitous and beloved fish delicacy-go ice fishing, and take a self-guided tour of Moscow.
With its hand-drawn maps, its wealth of illustrations of every aspect of the experience-from sleeping quarters on a train to the highlights of a monastery or the details of a memorable meal, Border Crossings is an invitation to experience new destinations and cultures first-hand-to travel the Trans-Siberian Railway as never before, whether you're a nomad looking for a new vacation destination, an armchair traveler, or just culturally curious.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"[Fick's] enchanting illustrated travel memoir shares the experience intimately. . . . She chronicles the trip diary-style, with watercolor paintings to show both stunning scenery and portraits, as well as myriad odd details, the "snippets" that make remote travel so alluring. (Imagine your own illustrated travel journal in which you capture each day's essence in a note with a drawing; then imagine you actually have talent.)" - New York Times
"Watercolor sketches [depict] artist Emma Fick's 2017 journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway . . . with paintings of bathroom fixtures, local officials and Russian cafeteria food that dodge the genre's cliched tropes altogether. Handwritten notes accompany the images, which are sometimes framed with a traveler's-eye view of train windows and passenger compartments. Others serve as whimsical compendiums . . . [the] effect is charming, yes, but it also invigorates." - Washington Post
"Artist Fick's illustrated travelogue combines intricate art and intimate observations-vibrantly colored and distinctly hand-lettered-of a Beijing-to-Moscow expedition on the Trans-Siberian Railway. . . . Lucky readers get to adventure along in cozy comfort." - Booklist
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Maße
Höhe: 233 mm
Breite: 182 mm
Dicke: 29 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-06-308036-2 (9780063080362)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Emma Fick is an artist and illustrator. After completing her degree in English Literature and Art History in 2013, she taught English in Serbia on a Fulbright scholarship and began to chronicle its culture in a series of watercolor illustrations called "Snippets." The illustrations caught on, and thanks to a grant from the U.S. Embassy, Emma returned to Serbia the next year to pursue painting full-time. After publishing her first book of illustrations, Snippets of Serbia, in 2015, she returned to New Orleans and began working on Snippets of New Orleans, which was published in 2017. In New Orleans, she shifted to fine art, with a conceptual focus on hybrids: merging Louisiana-specific symbols and ancient Byzantine frescoes; creating half-human half-bird mythological creatures; combining plant species in ways not found in nature. Her current work, all watercolor and ink on paper, explores cultural, biological, and floral hybrids and the endless permutations they allow. She hopes to continue traveling far and wide, illustrating her way across the world. She lives in New Orleans.
