In this witty and engaging assortment of travel tales, an acclaimed journalist explores his obsession with trains–and what his rail journeys have taught him about culture and identity.

‘I’ve gone around the world in installments. Every trip has been a revelation. I’ve watched regions, countries, and continents change moods and I’ve fulfilled more people on trains than in forty years of aircraft flights. Every teach trip is a spectacle. Trains are stages, cafés, bazaars. The just talk display about Off the Rails: A Teach Trip Through Life that will never go off the air…’

Beppe Severgnini offers spent his existence traveling the world, and not simply because he’s a journalist; he’s a separate, unflagging teach buff. Off the Rails recounts a few of his preferred trips across European countries, Australia, Asia, and the United States, each journey bringing readers not only to a different place but to a different period, from his honeymoon in the Trans-Siberian Express (inside a four-person area!), to a winding journey from Russia to Turkey over the last summer season of communism, to a recently available coast-to-coast trip along with his boy from Washington, D.C., to Washington State.

From the Rails may be the perfect getaway for anyone with some wanderlust, who dreams of escape or just likes to have a good laugh. Filled with unforgettable personas and perceptive observations, it demonstrates–hilariously–what unites us.

With the world in chaos and life in perpetual fast-forward, it certainly is the right time for you to hop on plank with Beppe Severgnini and meet up with your charming, hapless, quarrelsome, intimate, shifty, quirky, endearing neighbors.