Full disclosure: This is not my normal type of read! But I was in the mood for something different, and so I requested an e-galley of this book from the publisher. It did not disappoint! I can't imagine what a treasure this must be for someone into history, as just as a typical nonfiction reader, I LOVED it. Anthony Bale did an incredible job making the reader feel like they'd traveled in time and were experiencing everything as it was back then. I was so surprised to learn about the pilgrimages people made--it was like shining a light on an era that feels rather dark in average history books. I highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially the history buff in your life!

A wonderful and insightful book. My favorite non fiction of the year. Anthony Bale has a way of truly taking you back in time to marvel and appreciate how we lived and what we have now.

History often leaves everyday people behind. Bale has found a window to the past through extensive research of travel as it was known in the Middle Ages. Bale has scoured through endless accounts around the world, church records, personal journals, and has painstakingly compiled a picture of life for the person lost to time. It simultaneously is a marvel of portrait of life as it was and still is. How desire for exploration still connects us and how we should appreciate modern advancements.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an ARC of this book.

What a fun history book - it's clear that the author is a serious academic but the writing is light and entertaining. As a traveler, I loved seeing the world through medieval eyes. I loved the sections on India, the Middle East, Ethiopia and China - and seeing how the Europeans of the middle ages processed the experiences they had.

The middle ages tend to get a bad rep, with most people thinking it was a dark, backwards time where people didn't interact with other cultures. This book proves this was not the case. While there was a large part of society that was, for one reason or another, tied to the land they lived and worked on, there still was a significant amount of travel done by those with the ability to do so. The author has set this book up well, starting in Europe and following travelers-many of whom were on religious pilgrimages-as they traveled east, towards Italy and the Holy Land in the Middle East. The chapters are broken up by legs of the journey, with each one described as one may expect to find in a modern travel guide. The last part of the book covered Eastern travelers and their adventures, which I found very interesting. This book was well written and well researched, combining the accounts of dozens of travelers from the middle ages to give an overview of what might have seen during that time.