Home Inside the Globe takes its place beside some of the best travel memoirs, but it stands on its own as a new kind of reading experience. Gail Straub’s writing is infused with the pace of a poet and the grace of a mystic

Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega Institute and author of Broken Open

In a world run amuck with seemingly irreparable differences, divides, and conflicts, Gail Straub’s memoir Home Inside the Globe offers an antidote. As a seeker on pilgrimage across the Sahara in camel caravan with indigenous Tuaregs, trekking off the beaten trail high in the Himalayas and in Timbuktu in Mali, or participating in the sacred rituals of Bali, the intrepid Straub seeks out all that is different so that she can become whole.  And this impulse toward differences guides her to its perfect opposite, a boundless realm where our common humanity unifies us. As an activist Gail is deeply immersed in the era of Gorbachev’s Russia and Deng Xiaoping’s China, working with leaders who are empowering sex-workers in India, Syrian refugees in Jordan, and among isolated Berber villages in the High Atlas in Morocco. Here out beyond man-made political borders, she again finds a much larger, freer place where we connect as human beings transcending nationality, skin color, gender, socio-economic status, and religion. 

Along with traveling the exterior landscape of these countries, we also journey through Gail’s interior terrain as she matures through the stages of girlhood, womanhood, and cronehood. We witness how various cultures shaped her, helping her through times of grief, crisis, and confusion. Throughout Gail’s ever so human journey, we can find ourselves and our own longing for wholeness. Home Inside the Globe is a dynamic synthesis of memoir, travelogue, and life lessons. It is an invitation to awaken as individuals so that we can fully participate in creating a better world for all people.