Trespassing Across America

Praise

“A combination of Thoreau, John Steinbeck, and Ian Frazier . . . an unforgettable read.” —Men’s Journal

“A timely and riveting book . . . written by a courageous young man struggling with the chaos he is inheriting from his elders . . . The book mirrors its young author: impulsive, tenacious, reflective and, amazingly, cautious . . . a welcome message of resistance and hope.” —Evaggelos Vallianatos, Huffington Post

“[A] fascinating and breezy new effort . . . [Ilgunas] does a masterful job weaving the details of his daily travels into a work of prose that is difficult to put down . . . a very good book from a writer we should hope has many more waiting to come out.” —Bruce Andriatch, The Buffalo News
 
“Ilgunas is something of an heir to Bill Bryson in his ability to find humor and irony in random encounters on the road. But he also brings to his work a John McPhee-like talent for placing big-picture environmental issues into an accessible narrative that’s both entertaining and perceptive. Woven into this narrative are profound insights both about the beauty of the natural world and our alternately loving, twisted and exploitative relationship with it. Ilgunas’s writing is funny, self-knowing and often moving.” —Joanna O’Sullivan, Asheville Citizen-Times
 
“[A] compelling book . . . outlines a journey that started about a pipeline and became much more.” —Melanie Wilkinson, York News-Times
 
“A rich, perceptive book, an amusing and interesting tale beautifully mixed with thoughtful insights into Ilgunas himself as well as the world that he was seeing more closely than most people ever do . . . at times funny, and at other times philosophical and even poetic.” —Linda C. Brinson, Greensboro News & Record

“One of the great adventure stories of modern times.” —Vick Mickunas, Dayton Daily News

“When Ken Ilgunas sets out to walk the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas, he knows he is heading into the heartland of the debate about climate change. What he can’t yet know is that, by confronting the challenges of this epic journey, he will emerge renewed, emboldened and filled with hope. An exhilarating adventure.” —Candace Savage, author of Prairie: a Natural History and A Geography of Blood

“You could argue that a cross-country pipeline is itself a trespass—through watersheds, communities, lives—so moments when various authorities challenge Ilgunas’s route work as tiny cosmic jokes. But this is not heavy book. Trespassing Across America is a delight. In the end, walking across the country turns out not to be about you, but about the country and all the land and people that make it one.” —Robert Sullivan, author of Rats and The Thoreau You Don’t Know