Overland

What a rich and beautiful book. While the writing style took a little to get used to, the gorgeous narration was an instant hit for me. The way Khan described the different countries, people, and places was simply divine. There was a real sense of immersion coming off the page, it was easy to picture the dust and sand of the deserts and the atmosphere of the small towns and cities. The characters were also incredibly complex, in particular I loved Joyce. Although she tends to erase herself a little from the narrative, her quiet demeanour and motherlike way of looking after her boys was heartwarming. She was also infuriating at points, allowing her privilege and naivety to get in the way and distort her view.

The ending had me in tears, and I so desperately wanted to crawl into this book and seek out answers for myself. The commentary on racism, class and Imperialism was weaved so finely throughout, adding to the story and reminding the reader of the importance of these conversations. A masterpiece of a book that transports the reader to a different world altogether.

Overland is a novel about three young people in 1970 who go on a road trip to India, and it doesn't go as expected. Joyce sees an ad in the paper in London for going to Kathmandu by van and before she knows it, she's off with aristocratic Freddie and academic Anton, best friends from boarding school, leaving her suburban life behind. As they travel, Joyce gets closer to the boys, but Freddie is trying to escape his family by any means necessary and he and Anton have very different ideas about their trip, as well as the secrets hiding in Freddie's father's past.

Told by Joyce looking back decades later, the narrative unfolds with an unreliable edge, with Joyce positioning herself—and even Freddie and Anton—as very different to the hippies, the "freaks", also making the overland journey. This idea of seeing yourself as different, as privileged, runs throughout the book, with class and wealth differences vital between the three main characters, but also in their interactions with everyone else. This provides a commentary on the very journey, and the idea of who is able to drop everything in their life to suddenly travel so far. The story itself meanders like their journey, with a lot of hints early on of things going wrong, and then a faster paced ending, though still quite clouded through Joyce's determination to minimise her part in anything. A lot of the hints towards the later narrative don't quite go anywhere, but with an unreliable narrator it can be hard to tell how intentional this is.

Joyce's position as narrator and character is fascinating: a narrator who wants to paint her companions as extraordinary, whilst lessening her impact on the narrative (which you later discover is very much intentional). Her narration is clouded by her own judgements, and she is purposefully a figure of conformity despite having gone on such a hippy trip, believing in imperialist narratives and not wanting to question how narratives of history have been told even as she tells her own. There's a lot of reading between the lines to do—I imagine some readers will either like Joyce or be frustrated by her opinions, rather than see the point of her character traits as something to read into—and generally the book feels less about what happens, than ideas of travel, escape, privilege, and the harsh realities of combining crossing borders with a lot of drugs.

A book that is often just as much about what the narrator isn't saying than what she is, Overland is an interesting look at a specific phenomenon that plays with perspective and storytelling.

Join Joyce, Freddie, and Anton on their wild ride from London to Kathmandu in a vintage Land Rover. Khan paints a vivid picture of the 1970s, blending adventure with intrigue as secrets unravel and destinies collide. With each mile, the tension mounts until the shocking truth is finally unearthed. Full of nostalgia and suspense, "Overland" is a gripping tale of friendship, betrayal, and the power of redemption. Buckle up for an unforgettable journey that will keep you guessing until the very end.