I wanted to like this, I really did, but the author doesn't seem very smart about her topic. If you want to speculate on scientific topics it helps if your science isn't completely out of date (like on gender etc).

Enjoyable look at roads through time and the people who travel them

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mary Soderstrom tells a great story about the movement of people, from our earliest times to today, incorporating personal anecdotes along the way. She has a very conversational tone that makes reading the book a pleasure. The only fault I found with the book is that it ends with a discussion of climate change, which while important, really didn't fit with the rest of the book. Nonetheless, I found this a minor point and didn't affect my enjoyment of the book.

Man's journey starting some time between 50 000 and 80 000 years ago when man left Africa where he had always lived and started his gradual move across the world ending in South America where the book also ends in recent times with Soderstrom's journey on a modern road between the Atlantic coast at Sao Paulo to the Pacific Ocean in Peru. During the trip she appreciates the beauty around her and laments the harm man has done and is doing to the world.
I especially appreciated the imaginary stories Soderstrom tells at the beginning moving to more personal recollections in more modern times while also bringing in Jack Kerouac's novel 'The Road'.
Although at points I found the book a little dull, it was overall interesting and informative.
I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary review.