Come Wander with Us this Thursday!

Lost Boys, Travel Books & Movies — By Lost Girls on January 17, 2011 at 6:20 pm

by Amanda Pressner
LG Executive Editor

About three years ago, when The Lost Girls book was still but a mere idea percolating in our minds, we got an email from another intrepid traveler who was planning to leave his job, friends, family, and everything familiar behind to travel the globe.

While our round-the-world journeys were similar in certain ways, the life-changing “ah-ha” moment that prompted David Jedekin to finally get on the road was very different: He’d volunteered to be a living liver donor to his then-boyfriend, but when even that selfless act couldn’t save their ailing relationship, he decided to gain some perspective by doing a seven-month journey across six continents.

We stayed in touch during that year, and the one that followed after he’d returned home to the west coast, and were thrilled to hear that he’d written a book about his incredible adventures. Wander the Rainbow is billed as “the true story of a career professional who trades convention for a one-of-a-kind walkabout around Planet Earth,” but we can tell you from personal reading experience that David’s memoir is so much more than that! Wander the Rainbow is a story of one traveler’s courageous search for answers in his own life and the first-ever round-the-world memoir written from the perspective of a gay man. At a time when Americans still wear Canadian flags on their backpacks in order to avoid being identified, it’s incredibly refreshing to read about a man who refuses to hide or apologize for who he is.

We are also psyched that David is making a rare appearance in New York City, where he’ll be reading from Wander the Rainbow. Please join us on:

Thursday, January 20, 2011, 7 p.m.

McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St, New York, NY (212) 274-1160

The Lost Girls will be in the front row for David’s reading and we hope that you’ll come out (and bring friends!). We know that you’ll love the author as much as we do! Below, you’ll find more information on David, Wander the Rainbow and his upcoming readings…

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About Wander the Rainbow (from Amazon)

When David Jedeikin’s partner of three years becomes critically ill, the only way to save him is to volunteer as his living liver donor. But this ultimate act of sharing doesn’t rescue their relationship, which ends soon after with the couple on opposite coasts. Struggling to find perspective on these events, Jedeikin decides on a radical switch: he leaves everything behind — work, family, friends, even the beginnings of a new relationship — to embark on a seven-month trip around the world. What unfolds is a dazzling array of experiences across six continents. Traveling as a flashpacker — backpacking with creature comforts — Jedeikin blends visits to gay nightspots with straight-edge sightseeing; unearths family roots in Latvia, China, Italy, Israel, and South Africa; learns the legacy of the Jews of Prague and Rome; and finds romance with a sex club bartender in Berlin, a Brazilian in Tokyo, and an exchange student in Beijing. From Viennese party hostels to Parisian models to hallucinogens in Cambodia, Wander the Rainbow is the true story of a career professional who trades convention for a one-of-a-kind walkabout around Planet Earth.