The World is a Wondrous, Welcoming Place
Ann von Lossberg and boyfriend Jim Hudock stand at the dock at Baltimore harbor and wave goodbye to their screaming-red VW bus en route to bonny England-- “just about the most beautiful magic carpet I’ve ever seen.” Ann says. Quitting their jobs and selling their possessions, they travel around the world with no fixed itinerary—daring to believe that their odyssey will be no less magical than Ali Baba’s classical odyssey. The first overland trip, two and a half years, takes in the Middle East and Africa; a second trip to Asia is thirteen months. The love affair with the developing world continues today.
From Syria to Mozambique to Cambodia, 1089 Nights spans twenty-five years of travel.
“In the end, it’s more than the sights and people that draw us back again and again. It’s something more elusive: it’s how travel changes us, makes us softer, and satisfies something soulful. How it promotes the most personal kind of peace.” The sixteen stories of 1089 Nights challenge the countless, negative, subliminal messages we get every day about the world—messages that have nothing to do with our personal experience of a place. Over and over, Ann and Jim’s experiences reinforce what we’ve always believed: that people everywhere are good. Even when things go awry, as they do frequently, there is redemption.
“There are things we can’t imagine outside our door,” Ann says, adding an urgent plea. “But go! The world passes us by faster than we know. If we don’t catch it soon, the airwaves will immutably wash over us in the same likeness. We will become as one.” “Hurry,” she says, “the camels are waiting.”
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING...
“In the end, it’s more than the sights and people that draw us back again and again. It’s something more elusive: it’s how travel changes us, makes us softer, and satisfies something soulful. How it promotes the most personal kind of peace.” The sixteen stories of 1089 Nights challenge the countless, negative, subliminal messages we get every day about the world—messages that have nothing to do with our personal experience of a place. Over and over, Ann and Jim’s experiences reinforce what we’ve always believed: that people everywhere are good. Even when things go awry, as they do frequently, there is redemption.
“There are things we can’t imagine outside our door,” Ann says, adding an urgent plea. “But go! The world passes us by faster than we know. If we don’t catch it soon, the airwaves will immutably wash over us in the same likeness. We will become as one.” “Hurry,” she says, “the camels are waiting.”
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING...
1089 Nights received the "Reviewer's Choice", June 09 online edition of The Midwest Book Review. http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jun_09.htm#rc
Such is the immediacy of Ann's prose that I felt constantly at her side, breathing, smelling, seeing as she did. Each story is a vignette to be savoured.... Jeni Caffin, Write Stuff magazine, Byron Bay, Australia; April 09.
Among top five "What's Hot" in books for 2009 on Australia's Boomerangbooks.com website.
“von Lossberg has a very real emotional connection with her experiences.... told with a combination of great insight and an ability to describe scenes with precision and genuine feeling. The end result [of 1089 Nights] is a book which is both intimate and engrossing …tales which remind the reader that great good things can happen when you travel simply and open your heart to the unique experiences which surround you.” Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/15/09.
Refreshingly lacking in pretension....[Ann’s]flowing text is direct and appealing ….imbuing her writing with momentum and drive….open-
A true-
1089 Nights is also featured among Independent Publisher's Highlighted Titles which "recognizes the best of the newly released... and exhibiting superior levels of creativity, originality and high standards of design and production quality."