Suspense, romance, and drama. This book will keep the reader hooked and guessing from the first to last page. Great plot. Great characters. Original. Definitely a great read that will keep you up into the wee hours to find out what happens next. ( )

I didn't write a review of this when I read it and now I can't really remember it. I gave it 31/2 stars so must have thought it was a bit better than OK. Sounds kind of awful from the other reviews here. ( )

I read this book in two days because something about it reached out and took hold of me.

in a nutshell: A high school English teacher, Peter Ferry, who writes occasional pieces of travel writing, witnesses a young woman's death. Specifically, he was in the car next to hers and moments before she drove into a light pole, he believes he had the opportunity to save her, but he didn't. And the event changes his life.

Probably what kept me glued to Travel Writing was the mystery- Ferry takes it upon himself to disprove that the young woman, Lisa Kim, willingly ended her life and to prove that someone else meant for her to die. It becomes an obsession for him, driving away those who are closest.

But what really drove the story for me was its central theme: boundaries. Ferry explored the line in so many ways:
1) between fact and fiction- there are moments of Ferry talking to his classroom as though the Kim story was fictional and he's using it as an example of how to write a good story. This is a method I've never seen used before, and even though Ferry tells the class Kim isn't real, she is, the way any great character is real. It doesn't matter what he says, I wanted to know what happened to her.

2) in relationships- he talks about how he and his live-in girlfriend used to have these boundaries, how she wouldn't let him in and now that she will, he's not as interested.

In his relationship to Kim- He berates himself for not saving her, but in order to have done that, he would have had to cross and break many boundaries. Perhaps to make up for it, after the accident, he breaks every boundary of common sense to find out about her, to, in a way, save her life.

3) And of course, we have to talk about travel. There's the obvious like crossing borders, but really Ferry expands his own boundaries by traveling alone, testing the limit of his loneliness or the test of his endurance.

There are more examples, but you can find them for yourself. I loved this book, and I hope you enjoy it too. ( )

Pete Ferry is a teacher who also works as a newspaper travel writer. One day he starts telling his students a story of a man named Pete Ferry who witnessed a woman named Lisa Kim, a stranger, crash her car and die. The police think it's an accident, but Pete thinks there is more to it than that. He can't seem to stop thinking about her and ends up going to her funeral, where her family mistakes him for the boyfriend they never met. He doesn't tell them any different and they give him a letter Lisa wrote to "P", telling him how much she loves him. This sets Pete on a mission to find "P". All this time and energy he is spending on finding out more about Lisa is putting a strain on his relationship with his girlfriend, but he can't seem to stop. He feels he must find out the truth. This book covers it all. There is mystery, romance, humor and suspense. I thought this book was very good, especially for a first time author. I am still trying to figure out if this is a true story or not. I loved this book and will probably read again. I'll also be on the lookout for more books by Peter Ferry. ( )

Peter Ferry is a storyteller and his debut novel, “Travel Writing,” is one terrific story. The novel’s dedication is the first clue that Ferry has chosen to write something a little different to mark his first time out. It will not take long for alert readers to notice that the three people to whom the book is dedicated have the same names as three of its main characters, nor that the author himself is the novel’s narrator. Soon enough, the reader is wondering what is real and what is not - and that is half the fun of “Travel Writing.”

Fictional Peter Ferry (as well as real life Peter Ferry) is an English teacher who makes a few bucks on the side writing newspaper travel pieces. He is also a born storyteller and he motivates and inspires his high school students by example, often telling them on-the-fly stories in class, rather than by preaching the mechanics of writing. All in all, Ferry is pretty content with his life, but all of that changes one winter night when he witnesses a car crash that claims the life of a young Asian woman.

Only moments before her death, Ferry had noticed the woman’s erratic driving before she pulled alongside him at a stoplight. The two make brief eye contact as Ferry realizes the woman is either too drunk or too ill to drive safely but before he can intervene she speeds away to her death. Realizing that his was the last face the woman would ever see, Ferry becomes haunted by his inaction, always wondering if he could have saved Lisa Kim’s life by acting more quickly and decisively.

This is the story Peter Ferry chooses to tell his high school English class, a story of one man’s personal obsession with the death of a woman he never knew in life but comes to know intimately after her death. Having failed to save her life, Ferry is determined to find out why she died. He is so obsessed with solving the mystery of Lisa Kim that he is soon neglecting his work and his live-in girlfriend to the degree that he is in danger of losing both. As Ferry comes closer and closer to the truth about what happened that winter night, readers will find themselves intrigued by the truths he uncovers.

But did any of this actually happen or is it all just an exercise being used by Peter Ferry to make a point about creative writing to his English class? Just about the time one begins to forget that Ferry is a writing teacher, the author yanks him back to his classroom to discuss the story with his young students. Further complicating things is the book’s narrative structure. The story is told from the past to the present with flashbacks and related travel pieces interspersed throughout, a choice that further helps to blur truth and which leads to the novel’s clever ending.

Did it happen? I found that I was not sure, and that I really did not care much, because I enjoyed the story for what it is, just as Mr. Ferry’s English class is so intrigued by it. I did have great fun along the way trying to decide whether or not the story is just part of Mr. Ferry’s lesson plan or if it really happened to him. But, in the end, despite all the fun readers will have with it, this is a book with a serious message about personal responsibility and how far that responsibility extends into the lives of perfect strangers.

“Travel Writing” is a remarkable first novel which, at least for now, moves into my 2009 Top Ten.

Rated at: 5.0 ( )