Backpack

The fantastic first novel from the critically acclaimed writer of The Sleeper and The Sisterhood.

It is New Yr’s Day and the 12 months is not kicking off properly for Tansy: her mom’s useless, she’s a cocaine addict and her boyfriend has simply left her. A visit around the globe looks like the one choice besides that she’s not keen on seeing the world, simply escaping from it, and the final folks she desires to hang around with are backpackers.

Like a variety of travellers on the Lonely-Planet-led Asian Grand Tour, Tansy is extremely irritating at first. At all times on the look out for the “actual” Vietnam–the one by which she will stroll round “like a mannequin, fanning myself gently, strolling into historic temples and studying about interior peace”–she is opinionated, narrow-minded and remarkably naive (for a supposed media luvvy). As soon as she has shrugged off her habit to traces of coke, skinny lattes and Nicole Fahri jumpers, she turns into extra interesting. So by the point she’s fallen for Max, a fellow traveller, she’ll have gained you over and you will be simply as anxious as she is concerning the serial killer who seems to be on her path.

Emily Barr has written columns and journey items for the Observer and the Guardian for a number of years, and her earlier novels have all been critically acclaimed. She lives in Cornwall together with her husband and three youngsters.