9 Travel Books About Social Isolation

Are you pining for travel, stuck in lockdown, or looking to escape the perils of 2020 by diving deep inside the pages of a comforting book? The best of both worlds (that is, physical journeys and those undertaken through chapters) can be found in travel books about social isolation – a bit of an oxymoron, but nonetheless a relatable one during these “uncertain times.”

Here, I’ve created a collection of nine recommendations of the best travel stories most suited for travel in the time of Corona. Some are intrepid tales of solo adventures, while others are impressive feats of survival. Some of the examples of isolation are voluntary and others involuntary, but all relate to the challenges of remoteness and solitude, while satisfying wanderlust for the reader.

Travel Books About Isolation

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1. Castaway, Lucy Irvine (1983)

Castaway is an autobiographical work by Lucy Irvine. In 1982, Irvine answered an advert to become a “wife for a year” to Gerald Kingsland, living with him on the uninhabited island of Tuin, off the coast of Australia. She was 25 and he was 49. It sounds like a truly terrible idea, but I her unique take on the “gap year” made for a great travel yarn.

The couple do away with clothes and live off the land, emulating Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson – which are also great travel books about social isolation and two of the greatest stories about people called Robinson.

“I lay and looked up through a mesh of twigs at the sky. It was very big, making me and my world look very small. There was something about that I liked.”

If the story sounds familiar, it could be because Irvine’s memoir was adapted into the 1986 movie Castaway, not to be confused with the 2000 movie Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks and “WIIIILLLSSOOONNN!”

2. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer (1996)

Into the Wild is the true story of Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a young man who hiked into the remote Alaskan wilderness, rejecting society and assuming a new identity – Alexander Supertramp.

However, McCandless was unprepared, his supplies dwindled and he took shelter in an abandoned school bus, eventually passing away from a combination of malnutrition and poison from eating dangerous plants.

“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

Jon Krakauer’s telling of the story includes some poetic license and has received some criticism. You can read his version of events with admiration for McCandless’ philosophical idealism, or as a cautionary tale about the dangers of isolation, how nature can be unforgiving and how true happiness is found when shared with others.

The book was later made into a film of the same title, directed by Sean Penn.

3. Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff, Rosemary Mahoney (2007)

Down the Nile is Mahoney’s travelogue recounting a solo trip along a 120-mile stretch of the Egyptian Nile, between the cities of Aswan and Qena. There are many obstacles to her challenge: civil unrest, cultural differences (especially in regards to women and even moreso foreign women) and of course, the river’s infamous crocodiles!

“I rowed with a little bit of fear and a great deal of joy. I was alone, finally, with no one to protect me. I wanted to sing for happiness — a rare, raw, immediate sort of happiness that was directly related to my physical situation, to my surroundings, to independence, and to solitude. The happiness I felt that morning had nothing to do with the future or the past, with abstractions or with my relationships to other people. It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom, and of free will. I loved not knowing what would happen next, loved that no one here knew me. I felt coordinated and strong, and the world seemed huge and vibrant.”

4. Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer (1952)

Seven Years in Tibet is the fascinating true story of Austrian mountaineers Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter. The pair were climbing in the Himalayas when World War II broke out and they were suddenly imprisoned in a POW camp in British-ruled India.

Incredibly, the climbers managed to escape, crossed the mountains into neighboring Tibet and were welcomed into the holy city of Lhasa. Here, the two met the 14th Dalai Lama, who was only a boy and newly anointed at the time. Harrer became the boy’s tutor and later, they developed a strong friendship. The seven years came to an abrupt end when the Communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1950.

“We have a saying in Tibet: If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.”

The autobiography was made into a film in 1997, starring Brad Pitt as Heinrich Harrer and David Thewlis as Peter Aufschnaiter.

5. The Fearful Void, Geoffrey Moorhouse (1974)

The Fearful Void is a travel memoir by Geoffrey Moorhouse, recounting his 3,600-mile Sahara Desert odyssey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile.

“It was because I was afraid that I had decided to attempt a crossing of the great Sahara desert, from west to east, by myself and by camel. No one had ever made such a journey before.”

As challenging as the physical journey was, Moorhouse was deeply affected by the “awful emptiness” not just of the desert, but of undertaking such a difficult expedition alone. Fear and loneliness were as deadly as the heat, making for a powerful travel story of perseverance.

6. Love with a Chance of Drowning, Torre DeRoche (2013)

love with a chance of drowning book cover

One of the more lighthearted travel books about social isolation on this list, Love with a Chance of Drowning is by travel blogger Torre DeRoche. The book is about her experience sailing around the world with a man she fell quickly in love with, leaving her city life behind and embarking on a terrifying voyage of isolation, seasickness… oh, and she’s scared of open water.

Likely relatable to any couples social isolating together, learning more about their partner than they thought possible or necessary…

“Utterly alone out here, clothes became useless some time ago and, while I’m used to seeing his bits hanging just below the whistle on his life jacket, I’m still continually amused at the sight.”

7. Alone, Richard E. Byrd (1938)

Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure is Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s retelling of his dramatic Antarctic expedition in 1934. Byrd already held the record for being the first person to fly over the North and South Poles when he decided to return to Antarctica. His second expedition was to be a six-month stint at the bottom of the world gathering weather data, but things quickly started to go wrong.

Trapped in polar night until the spring, Byrd suffered physically and mentally, made worse by the discovery he was being poisoned by carbon monoxide from a defective stovepipe. What was meant to be a research trip turned into a struggle for survival and sanity, and makes for a thrilling read.

“Part of me remained forever at Latitude 80 degrees 08 minutes South: what survived of my youth, my vanity, perhaps, and certainly my skepticism. On the other hand, I did take away something that I had not fully possessed before: appreciation of the sheer beauty and miracle of being alive, and a humble set of values. All this happened four years ago. Civilization has not altered my ideas. I live more simply now, and with more peace.”

8. Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, Dervla Murphy (1965)

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, as you may expect from the title, describes Irish adventurer Dervla Murphy’s epic biking route across Europe and into Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Murphy carried a pistol, got sunstroke, got sick, battled against snow and ice as well as desert heat, lost herself in the remote wilderness, but also poetically found hospitality and beauty in the most remote of places too – some of which were “untouched by civilisation” at the time.

“For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.”

9. Journey Around My Room, Xavier De Maistre (1794)

The most apt “travel book” on this list, Journey Around My Room chronicles Xavier De Maistre’s six-week exploration of the most exotic of locations – his own quarters. Confined to his room for six weeks (he was under arrest for having participated in a duel), De Maistre made do with his imagination and set out on a solo adventure to reach the four corners of his world.

“A bed witnesses our birth and death; it is the unvarying theatre in which the human race acts out, successively, its captivating dramas, laughable farces, and dreadful tragedies. It is a cradle bedecked with flowers; — it is the throne of love; — it is a sepulchre.”

Journey Around My Room proved so popular at the time that a sequel was released. The second trip was undertaken several years later at night and is entitled Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room.