A Hard Place to Leave cover art

A Hard Place to Leave

Stories from a Restless Life

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

A Hard Place to Leave

By: Marcia DeSanctis
Narrated by: Marcia DeSanctis
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.01

Buy Now for £14.01

Restless to leave, eager to return: this memoir in essays captures the unrelenting pull between the past and the present, between traveling the world and staying home.

Starting in a dreary Moscow hotel room in 1983, weaving back and forth to rural New England, and ending on a West Texas trail in 2020, Marcia DeSanctis tells stories that span the globe and half a lifetime. With intimacy and depth, over quicksand in France, insomnia in Cambodia, up a volcano in Rwanda, spinning through the eye of a snowstorm in Bismarck, and atop a dumpster in her own backyard, this New York Times best-selling author, award-winning essayist, and journalist for Vogue and Travel + Leisure immerses us in places waiting to be experienced and some that may be more than we’re up for.

She encounters spies, angels, leopards, shoes, the odd rattlesnake, a random head of state, and many times over, the ghosts of her past. Each subsequent voyage leads to revelations about her search for solitude, a capacity for adventure, and as always, a longing for home.

©2022 Marcia DeSanctis (P)2022 Marcia DeSanctis
Travel Writing & Commentary Women Russia
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

“Intrepid and empathetic, gifted with the dispassionate gaze of a born observer…a harmonious collage of worldview and character, a wunderkammer of experiences in a life fully lived.” (Melissa Febos, The New York Times)

“DeSanctis encounters spies and love interests, but it’s her lushly polished writing that makes this book a joy to read.” (The Washington Post)

All stars
Most relevant
couldn't get into it, doesn't go anywhere, travel tales heard so far were not interesting

Dire

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.