After reading a lot of good books in a row I was unsure which way to turn next. So, I turned to Netgalley and my very long list of approved books, in the certainty that I would find something that I felt like reading. I picked Overland and this made me realise that I actually like historical fiction, as long as it is set in a time and place that appeals to me. And this was the case with this book.

Overland was a very special book. The main character, Joyce, is now an elderly woman with no children, who decides to write up her version of the events that went on on a trip she made when she was young, so they can be recorded to her nieces and nephews, like an inheritance of sorts. On the 60’s and 70’s of last century, thousands of young people travelled from Europe to India overland, traversing sites that would now by unthinkable, like the Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. Joyce needs a radical change in her life, one adventure very different than the boring life she leads, and she replies to a newspaper add that is looking for a 3rd person to join Anton and Freddie on a journey from London to Nepal. This will turn out to be a fascinating and terrifying experience, which will change all their lives forever.

This was a rather interesting book that, despite being fiction, showed me a glimpse of a different era, where people had more freedom than we have today. There were borders that could still be crossed, and experiences that could be had without being forever registered on some dark corner of the internet. Even though there were some other constraints, this idea sounds very appealing indeed.

I was left thinking about this book for a while after finishing it, which is always the mark of a good book. It came out recently, but I doubt it will be translated into Portuguese.

On to the next, Happy Reading!

So many of my friends have loved this book but I just… didn’t get it. Unpleasant people being unpleasant and not ever really getting their comeuppance just doesn’t do it for me.

this was an interesting book! 3 friends, 2 who have known each other for a long time and 1 who is brand new, travel from the uk across to asia, meeting a variety of people along the way, some that help them and some that hinder.

3.5 Stars rounded up to four. This is well written literary fiction about three young people from England setting about an epic journey overland from Surrey to Infia. It takes a powerful stance on privilege and class and is a testament to the 70s and in some cases colonialism specifically British imperialism. My favourite character was Anton. I think the ending was very powerful and intelligent but also very sad. I wasn't particularly enamoured by the narrator. The lack of quotation marks did throw me off a bit. I had to reread a few sections. There were way too many pages dedicated to the consumption and usage of drugs which obviously given the time frame and the characters in the novel wasn't a surprise. However, I did have to just speed through those sections because it just wasn't interesting to me.

Overland follows three distinct characters—Joyce, Fred, and Anton—as they embark on a journey that serves as both an escape and a search for something more. Joyce is fleeing a stifling marriage and suburban life, Fred wants to avoid family pressures of settling down, and Anton is chasing adventure before university. Together, they travel the well-trodden Overland route in Vera, an ancient Land Rover, with little money and a fragile bond that could unravel at any moment.

The novel feels like a blend of character study and travelogue, rich in authentic details that bring the journey to life. The story captures the essence of a bygone era—marked by free love, drugs, and the shadow of war—while offering unexpected twists as they navigate countries with now-closed borders. Overland is a compelling and immersive read that I highly recommend.

Read this one because I'm really interested in the overland trail that was popular in the 60s and 70s with western travellers – all the way across Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan into India. Glad I read it because it was entertaining and enjoyable enough, but I do think it could have done with a good edit – the characters you're supposed to care about aren't really depicted in much detail, and there wasn't as much atmosphere as I was hoping for. Definitely interested in reading more on this topic though!

Once I had got into this novel, and the overland journey was underway, I enjoyed this tale of the early-70s hippie trail from Europe all the way to Nepal (if you were lucky)! The author captures the vibe of that era, depicting its social and political attitudes impressively spot on. I did not find any of the characters especially likeable or engaging, which made it a slower read than I had expected, but they were very well drawn, and I am glad I read to the excellent ending of this book.

Enjoyed this escapist debut novel taking a nostalgic look back to the 1970s when a group of young people, from a different socio-economic class and educational background, follow the crowds of others seeking a more adventurous life. Dissatisfied with the prospects of life in the suburbs,Joyce Meyer sees an ad in the local newspaper and naively answers it and embarks on a road-trip of a lifetime. Her fellow passengers are Freddie, son of a wealthy landowner and Anton currently supported by Fred’s family due to a family tragedy. The story sees them falling apart until they fall back together I suppose, overcoming various challenges, coping with different cultures and rascist attitudes of the world at the time, the casual use of drugs and the ripple effects on those around them . Eventually this has sad consequences, as is revealed 50 years later in the present day by Joyce reminiscing.

Love a wanderlust novel and this didn’t disappoint

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been way too long since I finished Overland but I had to let this book marinate before I could write a review - I adored it.

Khan’s exquisitely researched novel is narrated by Joyce, a 70 something year old woman reminiscing on her journey from England to Kathmandu - via the Hippie Trail - some 50 years prior. With a desire to escape from suburbia and a life of marriage and children already planned out for her, Joyce responds to an ad, leading her to Anton, Fred and their Land Rover. Anton is queer, mixed race, and an avid historian. Fred is upper class, dysfunctional, with an addictive personality, eager to embrace the counter culture of the road. Their Land Rover is ramshackle from the start, foreboding the group’s tumultuous journey.

Overland is a fascinating portrayal of the 60’s/70’s era; I personally found it to be a rich, enthralling history lesson. Khan doesn’t shy away from the racist, imperialist atrocities that were ever present as the British Empire began to fall, and that continue to shape Britain today. As much as Fred attempts to outrun his family’s dodgy past, he cannot escape the ghosts on which his foundations have been built for him, on what has afforded him the privilege to embark on this journey in the first place. The trio’s relationship is also equal parts heartwarming and frustrating, easy to invest in, making for a heartbreaking read when tragedy strikes on the trail.

If you’re a fan of the road novel or historical fiction, I’d highly recommend. Moments from Anton and Fred’s relationship also reminded me of Withnail & I, and Saltburn at parts too. Overland is complex, sometimes nail biting, but entirely gripping.

Very well written, the descriptions of each of the countries the trio visited were very detailed and it was so interesting to see the ways in which those countries were gradually changing as a result of colonisation.
While the author choosing not to use quotation marks made it a struggle to read at first, as the novel went on it greatly benefited the story. As the story goes on you begin to question the reliability of Joyce's narrative voice. Which combined with her very judgemental world views makes her for a pretty unlikable character (I do not know if this was the authors intention). The book does a very good job of highlighting the ways in which many of those in positions of privilege very rarely face consequences
As I was reading I was expecting a deeper exploration of imperialism as mentioned in the novels description though overall I did enjoy this novel

I very much enjoyed ‘Overland’. It’s an enlightening tale of three travellers, two of whom, Freddie (the son of an Earl) and Anton (serious academic) who are already firm friends and Joyce, a curious add on to make the journey to India financially viable.
It’s the 70’s period of free love and endless drugs, where countless hippies make this physically difficult, but well trodden route through countries that today, would be impassible - a passage through Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. All three travellers seek to distinguish themselves from the hippy ‘freaks’ initially, but they’re share a common purpose and interweaving path, leaving their old lives behind for very different reasons

The story is told in retrospect, by Joyce a self professed ‘unremarkable twenty-four-year-old. Plain Jane’, recently separated from her husband, the circumstances of which are drip fed to us over the course of the novel. The details themselves are less important than the complex character that is revealed, one for whom fact and fiction are not always clear when told by the unreliable narrator. We come to realise, Joyce is utterly desperate for connection and identified self-importance, and lives in an often strangely delusional world. We know from the beginning that she ‘felt sorry about the way things ended up’, so we know that the ending isn’t going to be a happy one so we always have this little bit of knowledge as the story unfolds.

It an immersive rather wonderful read in my opinion, one which also examines the serious issues of class, education, privilege, Colonialism and Imperialism. It’s clearly very well researched as a piece of historical fiction, but for me its value lies in the journey of character discovery which isn’t a straight forward ride.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

I really loved the premise of this story, which follows three young people who overland from the UK to India in the 70s. I thought the direction of the story showed a lot of promise, but I struggled with some of the characterisation and execution at times. The plot took a turn for the cliche at times, and there was a lot of telling instead of showing. The tone was a little inconsistent, it felt like it took the author some time to fully get to grips with her characters. The three main characters were interesting, but lacked depth and had inconsistencies; for instance, the main character is meant to be working class, but she comes off quite elitist and judgmental of travellers and hippies. The dynamic between the core three had a lot of potential and was enjoyable at times, but due to the lack of character depth I just never felt fully invested in the characters or their relationships. I think with some editing this could have been a lot stronger.

2.5 stars from me.

A heady recreation of the hippie trail

A historical coming-of-age novel set in the 70s but with a present-day frame, Overland tries to do everything, from recreating the liberation of the hippie trail in its peak, to exploring three new adults as they reorient themselves from past to future, and the colonial gaze in both the 1970s and the 50s. This is an overstuffed yet slim novel, with three vibrant central characters who each represent a swathe of 70s Britain, class-wise, politically, in terms of gender, sexuality, trauma.

Some strands are better handled than others, but the unflinching landscapes and the grittiness of the pre-internet world are possibly the best part of this book, giving the characters somewhere real to travel through. The destination is always in sight but the journey is a travail, a Purgatorio version of the Grand Tour, and the way that each of the trio react to and are transformed by the journey are the heart of the book. Never hiding the realistic if imperfect fates of the three, Overland gives the reader a taste of the times.

Overland is the story of friendship, bonds and trying to escape what society expects you to be.
When Joyce responds to an advert to join two friends on an overland adventure to Kathmandu she is looking to escape her life, so too is charismatic Fred while Anton is fulfilling a dream to discover more,

Told by Joyce as a memoir of the trip, we follow their journey as they discover the countries they travel through and more about each other - but
the journey doesn’t go as planned.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Overland.

I loved the premise of this novel and was delighted to get an advanced copy from NetGalley. My only criticism of the writing is the lack of quotation marks throughout the novel. The entire story is relayed via Joyce the main character and maybe I'm just a stick in the mud about conversation but I still prefer to see it delivered in punctuation marks. Was what they talked about unimportant? Nope! I just think it's author laziness but onto other things. Overland is a story of three (two friends, one stranger) travelling from the UK via Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. Apparently, it was the done thing in the early 70s for people of a certain mindset; mainly hippies and new age types. Khan's book is about Joyce, Anton and Freddie. The latter are two public schoolboys, Joyce is a working-class lass from the suburbs. The difference in the three characters is what makes the book so interesting as we see them living on top of one another in a knackered old van and Joyce's feelings towards each. The characters they come across on the road leave little to the imagination and their travels are interesting, cultural but for Freddie, mainly drug-related. Freddie is the central character - charismatic, handsome, rich and kind but also difficult and mercurial and at times a liability to the other two. The story has a cruel twist near the end and I didn't see it coming at all. The story of these crazy hippies is turned on its head and for me, the ending was kind of skewed - I was not sure how I felt about any of them anymore even though I felt like I was travelling with them for the whole book. A good read for anyone interested in this particular period of Western history (us revering the East...but mainly cos it was cheap and there was lots of sex and drugs).

Historian and novelist Yasmin Cordery Khan’s vivid recreation of the 1970s “Hippy Trail” the overland route to India followed by close to a million young people in the late 60s and early 70s. The story’s narrated by Joyce, a no-nonsense working-class woman looking back from a distance of nearly fifty years. In her early twenties Joyce was living in English suburbia, desperate to find a way out of her mundane existence. An advert leads her to Anton and Fred. Anton, mixed-race, queer, is sombre and reserved, fascinated by history and languages; his close friend Fred wants to flee his destiny as a child of the English upper-classes, an ethereal, hedonistic musician he’s ready to fully embrace everything the counterculture has to offer.

Crammed inside a dilapidated land rover, the unlikely trio travel across Europe, through Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and onwards to India. Although they count themselves not as hippies but overlanders. But their journey won’t lead them to knowledge or to other forms of enlightenment but instead embroil them all in unanticipated tragedy.

Khan’s novel’s convincing, beautifully-observed and meticulously researched, making it hard sometimes to remember Joyce is a purely fictional creation. This isn’t a nostalgic glimpse at a lost world, instead Khan’s narrative gradually constructs a damming portrait of a newly post-colonial world, casually racist, steeped in orientalist attitudes. A place where, for people like Joyce and Fred, nation, the myth of empire, class and identity are still tightly intertwined. Khan’s exploration of these connects to an oblique, underlying series of reflections on history, memory and the legacy of imperialist atrocities – and above all the failure to take responsibility or atone for the evils of the past. But despite the complexity of Khan’s themes, it’s highly readable. An absorbing, fluid piece.

Adventure, discovery, and excess in a decade of great social change and before it was possible to access the internet for directions or post your travel content online. We follow three individuals as they travel overland in an old Land Rover to Kathmandu. Their relationships fractures as the journey they take unveils darkness, with addiction, privilege, and desire for freedom from the constraints of expectation, running through the plot. Joyce, our narrator, describes with vibrancy and fluency her travelling companions as well as providing a vivid chronicle of their journey. There was something nostalgic and thrilling about this story, a compelling addition the ‘road trip’ genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It is 1970 and Joyce wants an escape from the life that is mapped out for her, she also wants to leave a traumatic experience behind. She spots a succinct advert asking for someone to share costs and petrol on a trip to Kathmandu and this seems to be the solution, a way to break out.

Fred and Anton who are childhood friends are Joyce’s travelling companions. During the long overland journey to India the trio gradually become friends and confidants; secrets are shared and plans are made. Meanwhile Fred begins to experiment with the prevailing lifestyle too much and unravels. His actions provoke Anton into challenging Fred about the past actions of his family and privileged view of the world. Joyce is caught between affection for both, while always firmly concerned with safeguarding her own destiny. Matters come to a devastating conclusion.

A gripping read with well-rounded characters and a fascinating road trip. I was absolutely immersed in the story, always drawn to tales of the Hippy Trail I was not disappointed.

The author has included an interesting range of reading in a bibliography which I shall explore with pleasure.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Overland
By Yasmin Cordery Khan

I am just old enough to remember the tail end of the Hippie trail and have always been intrigued by the possibility of rambling through Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan en route to India. As a young one, it shimmered with freedom and adventure, so I was eagerly anticipating getting lost in this story of three young brits forging forth in their old but trusty landrover.

Although the novel is divided by country, it is less of a travelogue, focusing more on the relationship and dynamics between the three central characters, Joyce, Anton and Freddie, exploring the differences in their experiences through the lenses of wealth, privilege, gender and sexuality.

Told from Joyce's perspective, the narrative is imbued with nostalgia and hindsight, and it becomes clear that something awful happens.

This is such an easy book to fall into. The writing is clear and the impending sense of doom makes it compelling. It lacks the rich descriptions of the foreign and the exotic that I expected, but I put that down to Joyce's circumspect attitude to Freddie's flaithulach headfirst dive into the hippie scene and the arrogant and irresponsible exploitation of poorer economies by wealthier ones.

Even though this turned out to be a different story than I thought, I still loved it. I found myself humming "Down Under" by Men at Work, throughout, and 40 years later, the lyrics are more profound than ever for me. This would make a really interesting summer holiday read if you like your armchair travel with a bit more meat on the bone.


Publication date: 4th July 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #HeadofZeus for the eGalley

This started off as a really good book, especially around the class & privilege debate/discussion but the plot kind of fell apart for me as the story progressed. Solid but not great.