Long Road, Hard Lessons

by Mark Swain, Sam Swain (Contributor)

Aged 50, Mark Swain left his slippers by the fire and set off with his 18 year-old son on a cycle expedition from Ireland to Japan. "We'll train on the way," he said. Physical challenges, border bureaucracy, health scares and traffic hazards were all anticipated. What they underestimated was the conflict they faced, spending 24 hours-a-day together under such arduous conditions.

On one level a life-changing travel adventure, this book also takes time to look at the psychological journey made by parents and their children. The accounts of a Son's repeated attempt to break-away from his father to find his own individual place in the world are moving to insightful. Yet at every turn, these thoughts are lightened by humour and juxtaposed with vivid descriptions of the counties and people they encounter along the way. We witness how conflict teaches us things we did not expect to learn, and how much parents can learn from their children.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

362 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Mark Swain has a low boredom threshold. As a child he was something of a fantasist and compulsive liar. This, he says, has fitted him well to fiction writing. He has spent his life living around the world, collecting experiences via numerous jobs and several changes of career after initially attending Art College in Hastings, UK. He has only had one wife, however (25yrs) and they have 3 grown-up children. Mark became a full-time writer in 2009 after his young son persuaded him to take 10-months off to cycle 10,000-miles to Japan. It released him from running his successful management consultancy company. It also resulted in a prizewinning short story, published in 2010 followed by his first book - Long Road, Hard Lessons - in 2012. With a diverse kit-bag of memories from an eventful life and an out of control imagination, he has since published a book of short stories and has several other books as work in progress.

Reviews

[Dovile · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book a lot even though Mark is not a professional travel writer. I always thought I’d do a long bike ride this theirs one day. The day hasn’t come yet, so in the meantime the book was my way of travelling.

One thing that frustrated me while reading the book was the broken down communication between Mark and Sam. Mark was making so many assumptions about what was going on in his son’s head instead of actually talking to him and vice versa. They were both bottling things up during the trip. I just wanted to grab and shake them both and make them talk to each other!

[Nicholas Marrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long Road, Hard Lessons documents Mark Swain's 10,000 mile bicycle trip from Ireland to Japan with his 18 year old son. While the book is not written to the level of a professional travel author, it is fascinating because it rings true to the adventure that a real person can have in their life. Commiting to a 10,000 mile bike trip with your son is an impressive goal. Actually carrying it out is even more so. Swain's experiences may lack the trauma one has come to expect in modern travelogues, but it rings true. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has taken or plans to take an extended backpacking or bicycling trip without planning every stop, mile along the way.

[Jane Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting, which is unusual for me, and found it quite compelling. Like some other reviewers have commented, it can be enjoyed on several levels. The psychological journey unfolds in parallel with the gruelling physical journey. Descriptions of the many locations were fascinating and memorable and real eye openers - especially when father and son stayed in less than glamorous lodgings! Their stamina and openness is impressive.