The Backpack Years

Its journey through alcohol, angst, love, and learning carries readers, via a streetwise voice and experiences, far from the beaten path of tired travelogues. -D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Stef and James couldn't get it all together-aside from clothes and toiletries to stuff in a backpack. To these adventurous, incident-prone 21-year-olds, carrying their lives with them felt like freedom, and they traveled not just to explore, but to escape. James's father and his job pushed him out of England, and Stef left her old personality and anxieties back in America. What followed was a transcontinental journey of bad choices spanning six years and thirteen countries.

When their paths eventually crossed at an Irish pub in Sydney's red light district, they found the one thing they'd stay put for, but had few options for their international relationship. Attempts at immigration failed until one solution remained-get married so they could keep dating. What was supposed to be the end of their problems was just the beginning, and the time had come to decide whether to keep trying or pack up. 

The Backpack Years is more than a dual-narrative travelogue. It begins with Steph and James's experiences before they met-starting the chain of events that led them to the pub and beyond, through the highs and lows of wandering and the attempts at stability in-between. It's a memoir about the doubts of new adulthood and discovering who, where, and with whom you're meant to be.