A Ride Across America: A 4,000-Mile Adventure Through the Small Towns and Big Issues of the USA

Frustrated by the shallow headlines and the endless noise about borders, division and political drama, award‑winning travel writer Simon Parker set out to understand the real United States — not the one filtered through clickbait, but the one lived every day by ordinary people. To do that, he travelled the country the slow way: by bicycle.

Over 4,373 miles, through eleven states, Parker pedalled across mountains, prairies, forests and freeways, battling extreme weather and the sheer scale of America. Along the way he visited homes, schools, churches and rodeos, meeting hundreds of surprising, generous and endlessly varied Americans whose stories rarely make the news.

Was the America of his teenage dreams still out there? And was the country really as fractured as the headlines suggest? What he discovered was far more complex — and far more hopeful. As Ben East wrote in the Observer, Parker “magnificently chronicles the America he encounters… a divided, disenfranchised collection of states he fears for but comes to love for their generosity, community spirit and sense of hope.”

Funny, compelling and sharply observed, this is a journey into the heart of a misunderstood nation — a reminder that behind every headline is a human being, and behind every stereotype is a story worth hearing.