Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Memoirs

THE SUNSET ROUTE

Carrot Quinn

Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West

Wild meets Educated in this incredible memoir about how one woman left behind her hardscrabble childhood in Alaska to travel the country via freight trains, discover the redemptive power of nature, and ultimately find herself.

Carrot Quinn is a long-distance hiker and writer and this is her wild story. After a neglected childhood spent on welfare and in and out of homelessness in Alaska (raised by a mother who believed she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary) Carrot moved out on her own. She found a sense of belonging with a bunch of straight-edge anarchists who taught her how to traverse the country by freight trains, sleep in fields under the stars, and find her food by foraging in dumpsters. Her new life was one of thrilling adventure and freedom, but still, the ghosts of her lonely and traumatic childhood continued to haunt her.

THE SUNSET ROUTE is a powerful and brazenly honest adventure memoir set in the unseen corners of the United States--in the Alaskan cold, on trains rattling through forests and deserts, as well as in low-income apartments and crowded punk houses--following a remarkable protagonist who has witnessed more tragedy than she thought she could ever hold and who must learn to heal her own heart. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the natural world as a spiritual anchor, and on the ways that forgiveness can set us free.

Carrot Quinn's story is one of personal transformation, her writing has a universal quality that taps into the feelings of longing, loneliness, sadness, hope, and healing that live deep within all of us. And this author knows how to transport this to the page. Her voice is is hauntingly lyrical, propulsive, and poetic. Her powerful gift for atmosphere makes for a visceral and urgently immersive reading experience and her raw sensitivity lights up the page.

Carrot Quinn has been blogging since 2008. Her first book, THRU-HIKING WILL BREAK YOUR HEART (Little, Brown Dog Books, 2015), which details her first thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, sold over 40,000 copies and has developed a cult following. She has written for the Guardian and appeared on multiple podcasts. Currently, Carrot lives in Tucson, where she splits her time between long-distance hiking and providing humanitarian aid along the US/Mexican border.

Available products
Book Published 2021-07-06 by Dial Press
Book Published 2021-07-06 by Dial Press

Comments

At once a high speed journey through the gritty heart of the American West, and a wrenching memoir of tragedy and transcendence, The Sunset Route held me rapt from start to finish. In lush, reverent prose, Carrot Quinn describes the roots of her pain and the natural world in which she found solace and solidarity. The result is a singular work of adventure, kinship, and grace I didn't want to end, and will never forget.

At once rhapsodic and harrowing, Quinn delivers a raw and unflinching account of both the constant movement and the graceful stillness required to truly know oneself. Gritty and wondrous.

Carrot Quinn has faced brutal hardships in her life, and still manages to have hope and to see profound beauty in this broken world. A wild, inspiring story, at once gutting and uplifting, The Sunset Route is a remarkable portrait of self-discovery - and it made me want to join Carrot on a train across the country.