In 1991 Andrew Solomon rode a tank into Red Square in Moscow with a band of Russian artists protesting the coup after Gorbachev's resignation. In 2002 he was in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban; in 2014 he travelled to Myanmar to meet ex-political prisoners as the country slowly, fitfully pushed towards freedom. We find him in Greenland in 2001 researching widespread suffering from depression and on the quest for a rare bird in Zambia in 1998. Far and Away tells these and many other stories of profound upheaval. With his signature brilliance and compassion, Solomon demonstrates both how history is altered by individuals, and how personal identities are altered when governments alter.

A journalist and essayist of remarkable perception and prescience, Solomon captures the essence of these cultures across seven continents and twenty-five years and tracks seismic shifts - cultural, political and spiritual. He takes us on a magnificent journey into the heart of extraordinarily diverse experiences, yet shows us the common humanity uniting peoples and places all over the world.