The narrator arrives in Los Angeles, meets customs officer Jose and articulates a pervasive societal “itch” of disconnection; she then recounts how COVID‑19, the George Floyd murder, and other crises reshaped her thinking, outlines the book’s genesis, structure, and influences, and sets the stage for a call to reconnect.
The narrator dissects modern loneliness, layering it into existential, relational, and moral dimensions; she cites global statistics, scientific studies, and cultural anecdotes—including a “lady in red” she meets in a Ljubljana café—to illustrate how loneliness pervades despite hyper‑connectivity, and introduces “moral loneliness” as a deeper, societal‑wide disconnection from values and purpose.
She undertakes a four‑day Dorset–Somerset–Wiltshire pub‑to‑pub walk, stopping at the King John Inn, Buckhorn Weston, Corton Denham and Salisbury’s Saxon abbey, while reflecting on her nomadic loneliness, literary influences, and a shaman’s warning about traditional relationships, and ends the segment affirming her choice of a “perilous and interesting” life.
The narrator analyzes technology’s role in fostering “connection‑lite,” illustrates it with a cafe observation of screen‑obsessed youths, travels to Slovenia where a gondola ride with Nika and journalist Janez sparks a dialogue on awe and societal over‑indulgence, and then delves into modern dating‑app behaviours, ghosting, and Instagram algorithm quirks, underscoring a deeper relational emptiness.
The narrator identifies capitalism as the systemic root of environmental degradation, public health failures, and moral loneliness; recounts a coffee‑shop confrontation with a construction supervisor about single‑use cups; reveals her anti‑capitalist upbringing and cites recent polls showing growing public skepticism of capitalism; details how COVID‑19 exposed the fragile, profit‑driven health and supply systems; traces capitalism’s evolution from a liberating force to neoliberalism that dismantled collective institutions; presents stark inequality data and critiques fast‑fashion, plastic waste, and endless consumption; concludes with a moral appeal that capitalism has left humanity isolated and in need of new communal frameworks.
The narrator travels to the Swiss Alps, hikes the Heididorf area, stays at Hotel Sonne Fex, climbs multiple peaks, meets her longtime friend Libby for a joint hike, discovers Friedrich Nietzsche’s former cottage in Sils Maria, and uses the experience to illustrate nature’s healing power and its contrast with modern capitalist alienation.
The narrator delves into Erich Fromm’s doctrine of love and work as antidotes to modern alienation, recounts personal history with work starting at age eleven, admits a deep reluctance toward intimate love, and describes a trip to Greece where she encounters the concept of philotimo, receives a pivotal warning from her Ikarian friend Eleni, and experiences a revelatory hike that crystallizes the lesson.
Sarah hikes the Samariá Gorge, befriends a young engineer named Giorgos who exemplifies the Greek ethic of philotimo, and later undergoes a clandestine insemination amid her long‑standing fertility struggle; the chapter also recounts a dog‑bite incident and a shepherd’s unexpected apology, tying personal challenges to cultural notions of communal generosity.
The narrator joins David Whyte’s poetry‑guided hiking retreat in England’s Lake District, engages in group discussions about moral loneliness and collective knowing, hikes with the group and then solo on a demanding mountain, reads Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain and reflects on mania, nature, and deep reading practices, reinforcing the theme that poetry and wilderness can counter modern disconnection.
The narrator discovers she is pregnant while in Ljubljana, confronts the edge of her life, elaborates on the concept of personal edge, introduces Pema Chödrön’s teachings, examines youth anxiety and societal over‑protection, critiques capitalism’s role in fostering isolation, and reflects on climate‑crisis anxiety and how embracing the edge reduces her fear.
The narrator, four months pregnant, undertakes a “Plan B” hike across the Julian Alps, renting a car to reach the opposite side of Mount Triglav. She stays in mountain huts, walks the Soča Valley with waterfall stops, swims in turquoise rivers, and observes a quirky family picnic. The journey culminates at Hiša Franko, where she meets another solo traveler named Sarah; they share a multi‑course meal featuring sourdough, fermented cucumber, rabbit, peanut butter, violets, and cheese lollipops, discuss love and pregnancy, and deliberately choose not to exchange contact information, preserving the encounter as a singular, fleeting connection.
The narrator positions walking in nature as a radical, restorative practice, intertwining historical, activist, and personal anecdotes, and then delivers a step‑by‑step minimalist hiking guide that highlights scientific, psychological, and therapeutic benefits.
Sarah experiences a miscarriage in Chania, undergoes a D&C, then hires a car and hikes the White Mountains (Mount Gigilos) alone, using intense wailing and physical exertion to process her grief. She reaches the summit, discovers a memorial plaque for a woman named Sarah, and reflects on grief as a form of falling into oneself, quoting David Whyte and Peter Levine. The chapter introduces the concept of solastalgia and ecological grief, illustrated by the narrator’s reaction to climate‑related devastation witnessed in Australia. She repeats the “purging” hike on a separate mountain near Zourva, gets lost, remains calm, and drinks whisky, noting that most of the grief has passed through the mountain experience.
The narrator examines spirituality as a daily practice and moral reconnection, warns against “spiritual‑bypass” or lite spirituality, provides concrete examples of hypocrisy, and calls for genuine sacrifice and service in the current crises.
The narrator drives from LA to Joshua Tree, hikes the Barker Dam Loop, Hidden Valley, Ryan Mountain, Skull Rock and Split Rock, experiences profound awe that dissolves her ego, and observes tourists taking selfies before retreating. She then travels to Pioneertown, eats at Pappy & Harriet’s, watches Marianne Williamson’s warning about an “iceberg” and reflects on desert awe and Indigenous connections to the land. The next day she spends time at the Ace Hotel’s Zen‑pool in Palm Springs, does finances while a DJ spins, and notes Donald Trump’s presidential announcement. She critiques “self‑care” and adopts “soul‑care,” citing Audre Lorde’s political origins. After receiving an invitation, she flies to England, endures a long transit to meet Russell Brand on his farm, where they discuss spiritual materialism and the political responsibility of consciousness. She later video‑calls Sister Joan Chittister, who urges prophetic activism over spiritual complacency. The narrator outlines a daily news‑consumption practice, curates her social feeds using a “Kondo” method, and confronts her own white privilege in an Instagram‑style confession.
The narrator embarks on a solo hike in Australia’s Grose Valley, confronts a mysterious camouflaged driver, camps alone, reads Sebastian Junger, meets two elderly teachers and a young local admirer, reflects on the emptiness of scaling her “I Quit Sugar” business, and ultimately decides to close the company and donate its assets to charity.
The narrator urges “start where you are” as a practical ethic, illustrates it with Lucy’s swift organization of transport for a climate‑strike, advises tech CEOs to back existing climate experts rather than launch a new charity, and reflects on the necessity of personal sacrifice and everyday giving as part of meaningful action.
The narrator presents a concrete minimalist program, recounting her personal reduction to a single 15 kg backpack and offering numbered tactics—avoiding shops, abandoning a car, living out of one bag, extended periods of no purchases, sourcing second‑hand, embracing leftovers, and never discarding—to illustrate how extreme consumption reduction can be lived daily.
The narrator completes a six‑day St Ives‑to‑Penzance coastal hike, meeting an elderly man grieving his dog, staying in multiple loft‑styled pubs, reading Ariel Levy and Sartre, confronting personal privilege and miscarriage memories, reflecting on materialism, and ending with a performance at the Minack Theatre before arriving in Penzance.
The narrator joins a six‑day, 85‑km group hike on Tasmania’s Overland Track with eight fellow hikers and two guides, experiences intensive, intimate “adda”‑style conversations that surface personal histories and moral loneliness, and ends the trek at Lake St Clair before launching similar facilitated discussion groups in later settings.
The narrator delves into Nassim Taleb’s concept of “antifragile,” links it to cultural rites of passage, and then turns inward to confront moral injury sparked by COVID‑19 decisions, using personal reflections, a Netflix avalanche film, and Stoic philosophy to illustrate the need for “moral anti‑fragility.”
The narrator travels to Japan, hikes the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail, meets Yamabushi monk Kitsumi, learns about Shugendo endurance practices and forest bathing, and reflects on spiritual endurance and moral service.
The narrator breaks a compulsive “gripping” cycle by taking a 48‑hour email fast, serendipitously meets Maria Shriver in a beach‑side café, and uses the encounter to illustrate how releasing control invites unexpected connection. She then expands the personal anecdote into a cultural diagnosis of modern intolerance for uncertainty—citing youth‑risk‑aversion studies, “unprecedented” crises, and Virginia Woolf’s darkness metaphor—before detailing two somatic‑therapy tools she adopted (pelvic‑bowl awareness and a koan exercise) to train doubt and inhabit “not‑knowing”.
Introduces a forest‑bathing episode in Topanga Canyon where the narrator meets accredited guide Debra, learns mindfulness exercises focused on trees, a vista and a flower, and reflects on anxiety‑excitement re‑framing, phytoncides, the quantified wellbeing value of trees, and fractal patterns as a neurological source of relaxation.
The narrator’s Paris trip turns chaotic when all cards are cancelled, prompting reliance on strangers; a dating‑app acquaintance offers an apartment, a scooter‑company CEO provides transport via bank details, and the narrator spends a day flâneur‑style wandering the 7th arrondissement, buying a handmade mug and pencils, and reflecting on the historic flâneur tradition.
The narrator experiences a violent tropical storm on her balcony, details the extreme weather of an Australian summer (record heat, historic drought, catastrophic bushfires, hazardous air quality), and argues that humanity must abandon complacent separation from nature and “join nature… get wholly wild” in response to the Anthropocene and climate‑crisis hyperobjects.
Sarah and her friend Kersti spend five days hiking through Jordan’s Wadi Rum with Bedouin guide Oadh, living in nomadic lean‑tos, sharing tea and meals, observing desert rhythms, and reflecting on the “enlarge or diminish” decision‑making framework from James Hollis that influences her subsequent life choices.
The narrator obtains a last‑minute permit for the John Muir Trail, spends four days hiking among high‑Sierra lakes while coping with a recent pregnancy termination, reads Joan Didion, returns a bear canister, encounters a John Muir quotation, and listens to a podcast with Teju Cole on modern “constant rage” and quiet sorrow.