Boland brings us on a journey worth taking

Rosita Boland consistently pulls off the difficult balancing act of conveying her emotional pain without descending into self-pity

Travel: Elsewhere: One Woman, One Rucksack, One Lifetime of Travel; By Rosita Boland; Doubleday, €17.95

When Rosita Boland was 12 years old, she read a newspaper article that profoundly disturbed her. It was written by a middle-aged, single, penniless Englishwoman who lived alone with her cat and had a tin of vegetable soup for dinner if she was lucky.

“Somewhere in my head . . . was a deep fear that this would ...