Iberia

Summary

AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016; Iberia is Julian Sayarer's account of his impromptu journey across Portugal and Spain, from Lisbon towards Barcelona, undertaken during a pandemic on an old blue bicycle named Miles.; Finding himself in Lisbon amidst a pandemic, Julian Sayarer decides simply to ride. Through hazy landscapes and on baked roads, he pedals east. During long hours in the saddle, his thoughts traverse matters big and small - hopping from post-colonial culpability to the supremacy of an orange picked at the roadside; Across 900 miles of sun-drenched olive groves, vast mountainscapes, and dormant towns glimpsed through driving rain, Sayarer's journey is punctuated by fleeting, beautiful moments of human connection. Iberia is a celebration of a shared humanity and community found in a uniquely fragile time; Sayarer is a brilliantly thoughtful writer ... One can't help thinking that the future of travel writing lies in this adventurous, post-modern genre -- Sara Wheeler; Sayarer has made something of a specialism of reporting on the world from the roadside. -- Daily Telegraph; On the Road for the Occupy Generation -- Open Democracy; Sayarer's love of the open road and his ability to evoke the beauty of travelling by bike are a potent combination that makes you itch to go cycling -- Cycling Active