Sarah Glid­den is the per­fect trav­el com­pan­ion for a trip to Israel, or any­where else for that mat­ter. She is friend­ly, curi­ous, artic­u­late, and a ter­rif­ic artist to boot. In pan­el after pan­el of cap­ti­vat­ing illus­tra­tions, read­ers accom­pa­ny Glid­den on her first trip to Israel, with a Birthright group. She is pre­pared to hate Israel and the Israelis for their part in the Pales­tin­ian issue, and she’s ready to label every­thing she hears and sees as ​“Birthright pro­pa­gan­da.” Many times over, she is forced to recon­sid­er her pre­con­ceived ideas, and she is sur­prised by what she sees and the peo­ple she meets. Israel tugs at her heart, and when she feels an unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion to the land and the peo­ple, her emo­tions are pal­pa­ble to readers.

Trav­el mem­oirs can be for­mu­la­ic: the author goes on a trip, has new expe­ri­ences, feels unex­pect­ed emo­tions, and then arrives home a changed per­son. Glid­den shakes things up, and deliv­ers a trav­el­ogue that is any­thing but stan­dard. In a unique and enter­tain­ing twist, Glid­den depicts her­self play­ing judge, jury, lawyer, defen­dant, and bailiff in the tri­al ​“Birthright is try­ing to brain­wash me vs. Birthright is actu­al­ly pret­ty rea­son­able.” This mock tri­al of her con­science offers a fas­ci­nat­ing way for read­ers to visu­al­ly peer into the author’s thought process. Glid­den also plays with time, bring­ing famous peo­ple from his­to­ry into the present to car­ry on con­ver­sa­tions with her. For exam­ple, she walks the Negev desert with David Ben-Guri­on, and she vis­its with kib­butz pio­neers who are depict­ed in a paint­ing. Along the way her real com­pan­ions, such as her friend Melis­sa and their Israeli tour guide Gil, pro­vide Glid­den with stead­fast emo­tion­al sup­port as she makes her life-chang­ing jour­ney. Going to Israel? Pack this com­pelling and inspir­ing mem­oir along with your guide­books and sun­screen. You won’t regret Sarah Glidden’s com­pa­ny on your trip.