A Thousand Miles from Nowhere: Trucking Two Continents - Hardcover

Graham Coster was born in England in 1960 and educated at Cambridge. A former editor of Granta, he is the author of the novel Train, Train (1989) and a regular contributor to GQ and other magazines. He lives in London.

English journalist Coster lived out his diesel fantasies by attending truck-driver training school and then accompanying experienced drivers on several long hauls. The first half of the book describes a round-trip between London and Moscow, hauling ice cream and beer to Russia and then returning empty in hopes of finding a load in Poland. The second half covers two coast-to-coast runs across the U.S. Coster seems to love everything about the road: the bad food served in immense quantities, the unpredictability of weather and geography, the variability of European roads. Only the endless delays at European border crossings, waiting for state permits, or finding return loads cause frustration or monotony. Coster concludes the book with a discography, the culmination of his search for the proper soundtrack for the road: Should it be country? rock? blues? or Palestrina? Although the British spellings (tyre) and terminology (bonnet, windscreen) take some getting used to when applied to U.S. highways, and Coster's interpretations of such uniquely American experiences as listening to Rush Limbaugh are somewhat suspect, his book offers a detailed look at a fascinating subculture. George Needham