The Blind Masseuse: A Traveler's Memoir from Costa Rica to Cambodia

Through personal journeys both interior and across the globe, Alden Jones investigates what motivates us to travel abroad in search of the unfamiliar.

            By way of explorations to Costa Rica, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Burma, Cambodia, Egypt, and around the world on a ship, Jones chronicles her experience as a young American traveler while pondering her role as an outsider in the cultures she temporarily inhabits. Her wanderlust fuels a strong, high-adventure story and, much in the vein of classic travel literature, Jones's picaresque tale of personal evolution informs her own transitions, rites of passage, and understandings of her place as a citizen of the world. With sharp insight and stylish prose, Jones asks: Is there a right or wrong way to travel? The Blind Masseuse concludes that there is, but that it's not always black and white.

Gold Winner for Travel Essays, Foreword Books of the Year

Gold Medal for Travel Essays, Independent Publisher Book Awards

Winner, Bisexual Book Awards, Bisexual Biography/Memoir Category

Finalist, Housatonic Book Awards

Longlist of eight, PEN/Diamonstein Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

Finalist, Travel Book or Guide Award, North American Travel Journalists Association