Publishers Weekly
★ 01/28/2019
First-time author Prior-Palmer transforms from hopeless 19-year-old underdog into surprising champion of the grueling 2013 Mongol Derby in this exhilarating, visceral account of her attempt to win a 1,000-kilometer horse race across the Mongolian countryside. Driven by her own restlessness, Prior-Palmer, an English woman who had been working as an au pair in Austria, decided to enter the 10-day contest on a lark, unprepared for the arduous competition involving dozens of riders each racing a series of 25 wild ponies across Mongolia to recreate the horse-messenger system established by Genghis Khan. Struggling with an uncooperative pony at the beginning, the headstrong author battles GPS troubles (the devices show the participants straight line routes, rather than following the intended trails), minor nuisances (a group of boys chase and throw stones at her), and intense competition (she eagerly referred to logs at checkpoints to see who was ahead of her and by how long) as she discovers the race is as much an existential journey as it is a sports competition (“The race reclaims me as an animal—my original form, my rawest self, my favorite way to be”). Filled with soulful self-reflection and race detail, this fast-paced page-turner is a thrill ride from start to finish. (May)
From the Publisher
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Winner of the Steppes Travel Adventure Travel Book of the Year Award
One of Esquire's Best Nonfiction Books of 2019
"If you like your memoirs to revolve around singular experiences, Lara Prior–Palmer’s Rough Magic delivers." —John Williams, The New York Times
“This is no fresh–forged mythic hero, but rather a young woman who’s still doubting, still equivocating about her right to seek greatness . . . As Prior–Palmer senses on her journey, reconciling the wisdom of the everyday with the instinct for timelessness and mythmaking is a life’s work—work to which Rough Magic is an engaging guide." —Ellie Robbins, The Washington Post
"Excellent prose and rigorous honesty . . . An unusual pleasure to read . . . Prior–Palmer writes with a dash and boldness few writers possess; her language seems sui generis . . . Her narrative alchemy is remarkable; in every chapter, she turns boredom to suspense and back again. The Derby is at once heart–stoppingly close and a miserable slog to which we already know the ending. That shifting—heroism to comedy, glamour to stinking holes in the ground—creates a tension far more interesting than the question of who's going to win the race, or how." —Lily Meyer, NPR
"[Prior–Palmer's] prose is poetic, and while the race and Monolian landscape are conjured beautifully and intensely, the book’s emotional impact lies in the nuanced portrait of its subject searching for answers beyond the life she’s lived so far." —David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly
"In this sensual, spiritual memoir, Prior–Palmer recounts her grueling journey through immense physical hardship, and her surprising transformation from underdog to champion." —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"Page by page, Prior–Palmer tunes us in, slows us down to her speed, to pony paces, and we begin to attend to the present moment just as she does . . . At every turn, Prior–Palmer's writing is brilliant and clear–eyed and demonstrates more wisdom than any philosopher's theories . . . Presenting such an awe–inspiring page–turning narrative that plumbs the depths of all that's to be found in the present moment—the body, mind, and soul—while dissembling one's own ego with tender rigor is Rough Magic's finest achievement. Lara Prior–Palmer is a writer to watch." —Abby Travis, San Francisco Chronicle
"A gripping, self–searching, triumphant debut memoir . . . The winning vulnerability on display . . . throughout this exceptional coming–of–age tale keeps the pages turning and the reader rooting for this unlikely heroine . . . A breathtaking ride." —Kathleen Rooney, Star–Tribune (Minneapolis)
"Charming, self–aware, and mercifully devoid of clichés, it's just the sort of breezy travel memoir we've been looking for." —Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler
"We are all lucky she did write it, because it's the rare read that offers what Rough Magic does: a type of pure exhilaration, the kind that snakes through your body in moments both still and hurried. Reading it is a visceral, sensorially charged experience; a, yes, rough and magical ride through one of the planet's most desolate landscapes, and into the mind of a young woman whose fearlessness and curiosity take her—and us—to countless unexpected places." —Kristin Iversen, NYLON
"First–time author Prior–Palmer transforms from hopeless 19–year–old underdog into surprising champion of the grueling 2013 Mongol Derby in this exhilarating, visceral account of her attempt to win a 1,000–kilometer horse race across the Mongolian countryside . . . Filled with soulful self–reflection and race detail, this fast–paced page–turner is a thrill ride from start to finish." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
JUNE 2019 - AudioFile
Lara Prior-Palmer jokes that her upper-class British accent is full of entitlement, and narrator Henrietta Meire certainly possesses that posh undertone in her accent. But Prior-Palmer is also authentic and self-deprecating, and Meire expresses that likability with energy and vulnerability in her voice. At 19 years old, on a whim and with no experience or preparation, Prior-Palmer enters the famous Mongol Derby, a 1,000-kilometer endurance horse race. She struggles with the GPS, gets soaked in the rain, falls off one of her ponies, and runs out of food. Meire brings the remoteness of the Mongolian steppe easily to mind and vividly portrays the author’s gratitude and affection for the ponies (she gives them nicknames like Brolly and Seven) along with the kindness of the local people who feed and house her along the route. A.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-02-03
A young Englishwoman takes on the world's longest and most difficult horse race.
In 2013, Prior-Palmer came across a photograph of the Mongol Derby: "long-maned ponies streaming over green steppes, space poured wild and free—in Mongolia." The deadline was fast approaching, and the race's organizer gave her a discount to help defray the costly entry fee. The Derby, a "truly peculiar invention," is a seven-day, 1,000-kilometer race on 25 wild Mongolian ponies, descendants, writes the author, of "Genghis Khan's famed Takhi horses, the ones that shouldered his empire's postal system from the thirteenth century onwards." Every 40 kilometers, at stations called urtuus, tired horses are replaced with new ones; riders rest, eat, and use the toilets (holes in the ground). Each of the competitors has a rough map of the course, a not-always-reliable GPS device, and "nylon endurance saddles." In this feisty and exhilarating debut memoir, Prior-Palmer smoothly recounts what happened over her momentous week in August. Right at the start, she fell behind: "Where to go? I was hoping to follow someone….I can see only sun." Over the next seven days, she fought aching bruises, torrential rain, brutal heat, and a rough fall. She continuously scoured the vast horizon for "hamster cities," the holes of which could seriously injure a horse, and she dodged herds of nibbling goats while the horses dealt with Mongolian families' nipping dogs. The author personalizes the horses with names: Brolly, Dunwoody and "7." As she raced, carrying a copy of Shakespeare's The Tempest, she channeled her Aunt Lucinda, "my go-to ahead of any equestrian event," to help her get through each arduous day. After the apparent winner was penalized for overheating her horse, the author, who was second, was declared the winner—the youngest ever and the first woman.
Although the narrative occasionally veers off course, horse lovers will adore this inspiring and spirited memoir.
