BLUE SKY KINGDOM

An expansive, mind-stretching book that sits comfortably alongside Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard and Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

One morning at breakfast, while gawking at his phone and feeling increasingly disconnected from family and everything else of importance in his world, it strikes writer Bruce Kirkby: T his isn't how he wants to live. Within days, plans begin to take shape. Bruce, his wife Christine, and their two children seven year old Bodi and three year old Taj will cross the Pacific by container ship, then travel onward through South Korea, China, India, and Nepa l aboard bus, riverboat, and train, eventually traversing the Himalaya by foot. Their destination: a thousand year old Buddhist monastery in the remote Zanskar valley, one of the last places where Tibetan Buddhism is still practiced freely in its original setting.
In this refuge, where ancient traditions intersect with the modern world, Kirkby discovers ways to slow down, to observe and listen, and ultimately, to better understand his son on the autism spectrum to surrender all expectations and connect w ith Bodi exactly as he is.
Recounted with wit and humility, Blue Sky Kingdom is an engaging travel memoir as well as a thoughtful exploration of modern distraction, the loss of ancient wisdom, and the challenges and rewards of intercultural friendships.

BRUCE KIRKBY is a Canadian writer, photographer, and adventurer whose journeys span 80 countries and include traversing Iceland by foot, Mongolia by horseback, Arabia by camel, and the Blue Nile Gorge by raft. Along the way he's been shot at in Borneo, taken hostage in Ethiopia, and imprisoned by Myanmar's army. In addition to his two books, Sand Dance and The Dolphin's Tooth, Kirkby's writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, Outside Magazine, and EnRoute, and National Geographic highlighted his photography in their documentary Through the Lens. The Travel Channel series Big Crazy Family Adventure, which followed his family on the journey this book depicts, afforded Kirkby full press days in New York and Washington, with spots on Good Morning America, Today, and People TV. Kirkby is listed among ‘the nation's top modern day explorers' by Canadian Geographic.