The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780316438063)

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery, the story of a Texas man who, during the Great Depression, walked around the world -- backwards.

Like most Americans at the time, Plennie Wingo was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression. When the bank foreclosed on his small restaurant in Abilene, he found himself suddenly penniless with nowhere left to turn. After months of struggling to feed his family on wages he earned digging ditches in the Texas sun, Plennie decided it was time to do something extraordinary -- something to resurrect the spirit of adventure and optimism he felt he'd lost. He decided to walk around the world -- backwards.

In The Man Who Walked Backward, Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery charts Plennie's backwards trek across the America that gave rise to Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and the New Deal. With the Dust Bowl and Great Depression as a backdrop, Montgomery follows Plennie across the Atlantic through Germany, Turkey, and beyond, and details the daring physical feats, grueling hardships, comical misadventures, and hostile foreign police he encountered along the way. A remarkable and quirky slice of Americana, The Man Who Walked Backward paints a rich and vibrant portrait of a jaw-dropping period of history.

Author: Ben Montgomery
ISBN-10: 0316438065
ISBN-13: 9780316438063
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
Language: English
Published: 09/18/2018
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/16/2018
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2018
Booklist 08/01/2018 pg. 20
Library Journal 09/15/2018 pg. 65