Passage To Juneau

Raban's inability to write a mere travel book opens the way for Passage to Juneau to become something richer and stranger: a book that defies categories, unless it simply be called a portrait of the journeying soul . . . Evoking the sea, Raban is incomparable * Times Literary Supplement *
A moving, complex mosaic of memory, history and adventure * Sunday Telegraph *
'Passage to Juneau is a rich and complex book – a beautifully crafted travelogue, a subtle exercise in anthropology and an involving account of the personal crises which gripped Raban during his voyage to Alaska' * Express on Sunday *
'Jonathan Raban is one of the most satisfying writers of his generation' * Observer *
This is an extraordinary book . . . The epic jounrey through the eddies, rips, whirlpools, and various other marine terrors quickly becomes intensely personal . . . Passage to Juneau is far more thna a meditation on the sea and its meanings; it is also an unsparing self-exaomination, written with mordant humour and forensic ruthlessness * Telegraph *
A thrilling adventure and a telling internal exploration . . . the writing contains natural description of breathtaking exactness . . . and the sea itself – in all its moods – has surely never been so intricately painted * Evening Standard *
His erudition is enormous, his prose as beautiful and clear as the blue ocean on a crisp morning and his sense of joy at having found his place in the world is immensely rewarding. Passage to Juneau is a wonderfully fluid read. It is also a thought-provoking and challenging work that is likely to splash around in the memory long after the volume has been consigned to the shelf * Sunday Times *
Raban's journey itself is most beautifully told, vivid and fresh with observation * Spectator *
A work of great beauty and inexhaustible fervour * Washington Post *