-Canadian Author-
Elizabeth J. Haynes
Food for the Journey:
A Life in Travel
In this inspiring memoir rich with the flavours of other cultures, the author journeys by bike, on foot, by bus, plane, and train in her quest to understand the lives of the people she meets.
You know you’re not on a typical turista tour when you read, “We stopped for a mid-day lunch of piranha and hiked to a lagoon.” This writer’s explorations are unpredictable, sometimes perilous, often amusing, and always fascinating. While Elizabeth J. Haynes is an outsider—in the Philippines as a volunteer working with disabled children, at a pig killing in a remote Indonesian village, or even at a family wedding in rural North Carolina—she offers a compassionate view of those around her.
Insights and revelations emerge from stories Haynes tells about the vagaries of the human heart. Cycling with her sister in Cuba, she hopes her sister will find the strength to leave a difficult relationship. On a working trip in Armenia, she recalls a lost love; in Cambodia, in an encounter with a little girl, she faces the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge regime. Like many first-world travellers, she is pained by the want and suffering she witnesses and is moved by the generosity she receives.
As Elizabeth J. Haynes writes, “No one travels alone. No one journeys without help.” And sometimes help comes in the form of food—Southern grits with pancakes, Armenian eggplant stuffed with walnuts and pomegranate, grilled guinea pig in Peru—nourishment for the soul of the traveller. This travel memoir is a sumptuous meal with many courses, savoury and sweet.
Published by Thistledown Press.
New
Release!
The Errant Husband
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Thelma, a bored Calgary bureaucrat and her husband, Wally, a struggling writer, are drifting apart. Thelma discovers a box of old papers from the archeology degree she didn’t complete, while Wally revisits his youthful obsession with Che Guevara after Rosa, an attractive young Cuban poet, joins his writing group. Wally receives a grant to study the conquistador, Hernando De Soto, in Cuba, and Thelma decides to join him. Arriving in Havana, she discovers that Wally has disappeared.
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With the artist/gypsy cab driver, Tomás, his side kick, Jorge, and Cathy, a divorcee looking for love, Thelma travels the island in search of her errant husband. She is visited by the ghost of Isabel de Bobadilla, the wife De Soto abandoned, and memories of her beloved late father, a geologist. When the Soviet era Lada breaks down on a remote part of the Zapata peninsula, Thelma and Tomás discover a shared interest in the underground caves that litter the limestone peninsula and the sparks begin to fly.
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Published by Radiant Press.
Recent
Release!
Clever, snappy, fun, and occasionally sharp, Calgary-based writer Elizabeth Haynes’s first novel takes the reader on a mysterious travelogue through Cuba, marriage, and memory.
-Joelle Kidd, Minola Review
Haynes weaves a most unique story with interesting characters full of humanity and depth, a wholehearted and humorous read!
-Kate, Goodreads
The Errant Husband is a worthy first novel, notable for a fresh authorial voice that engages readers...Part realistic love story and part romantic travel novel, The Errant Husband treats an archetypal theme, one often explored by Canadian writers as diverse as Margaret Laurence, Thomas King, Alice Munro and Miriam Toews: in order to progress, one must come to terms with one's past.
-Ginny Ratsoy, Professor Emerita, Thomas Rivers University
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