The Broken Road

In the winter of 1933, eighteen-year-old Patrick (“Paddy”) Leigh Fermor set out to walk across Europe, starting in Holland and ending in Constantinople, a trip that took the better part of a year. Decades later, Leigh Fermor told the story of his journey in A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water, among the most vivid, absorbing, and beautifully written travel books of all time.The Broken Road, now available in paperback, is the long-awaited account of the final leg of this youthful adventure that Leigh Fermor promised but was unable to finish before his death in 2011. Assembled from Leigh Fermor’s manuscripts by his biographer Artemis Cooper and the travel writer Colin Thubron, the book catches up with young Paddy in the fall of 1934, follows him through Bulgaria and Romania to the coast of the Black Sea, and ends with his arrival in Greece, the country he would fall in love with, fight for, and make his home. Perhaps the most personal of all Leigh Fermor’s books, The Broken Road brings a wonderful literary adventure to a delightful and memorable end.