The anti-Eat Pray Love – A darkly satirical comic novel about travel, the need to visit as much of the planet as possible and the pressure to have meaningful experiences when you get there.

A brilliant book for anyone who loves to or wants to travel, The Excursionist is both a look at the drive to visit new places and a reminder that wherever you go you take yourself with you.

Newly single Jack Kaganagh longs to visit one hundred countries and the join the Travelers' Century Club before his landmark birthday. There is just one problem: Jack's enthusiasm for travel is matched only by his unsuitability to do so.

Travelling alone for the first time following the death of his partner, Kay, he flies to the Coronation Islands, fumbling around in dreamily faraway places in order to tick off his last three countries. He soon discovers that the more of the world he sees, the less he understands. A satirical, darkly comic novel, The Excursionist is about the entire travel experience and why we do it.

About the author

J.D. Sumner graduated from The Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin and has a PhD in Satirical Travel Writing from Royal Holloway College, University of London.