Free to Go

'An exhilarating story of freedom and constraint, told with a confident and unwavering verve. This is a journey driven by boundless curiosity, and by the desire for connection - across borders, across languages, across time' MALACHY TALLACK

When Esa Aldegheri and her husband left their home in Orkney, Esa didn't know that their eighteen-month motorbike adventure would take them through twenty international frontiers - between Europe and the Middle East, through Pakistan, China and India - many of which are now impassable.

Charting a story of shrinking and expanding liberties and horizons, of motherhood, womanhood, xenophobia and changing geopolitical situations, Free to Go examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on a motorbike and within relationships. Part around-the-world adventure, part-literary exploration of womanhood, Free to Go is about the journeys that shape and transform us.

“A very readable tale of adventure, motherhood and the ties that bind. Honest and perceptive, Free to Go perfectly captures the whole tricky business of being a free-spirited woman at large in the world”

A very readable tale of adventure, motherhood and the ties that bind. Honest and perceptive, Free to Go perfectly captures the whole tricky business of being a free-spirited woman at large in the world -- LOIS PRYCE, author of Revolutionary Ride
In her account of an epic trip by motorcycle, and a similarly scaled expedition into the trauma that was the recent pandemic, Esa Aldegheri opens the book on the most elemental aspects of being alive: tested by trials, gripped by the varieties of love, and crossing borders both internal and drawn on the map. Free to Go is an act of literary generosity, and an expression of clear-eyed beauty -- MELISSA HOLBROOK PIERSON, author of The Perfect Vehicle
A thought-provoking and elegiac journey through a lost world on a second-hand motorbike, the past, present and life itself -- CHITRA RAMASWAMY, author of Expecting

Esa Aldegheri is a multilingual poet, writer and academic, who has a PhD in Migration Studies and whose non-fiction has been published by Granta, MAP Magazine, Gutter Press, the Dangerous Women Project and others. Her poetry has been read on Radio 4 and Radio Scotland and features in several anthologies. From Scotland and Italy, Esa speaks Italian, French, Spanish and Arabic as well as English.

'An exhilarating story of freedom and constraint, told with a confident and unwavering verve. This is a journey driven by boundless curiosity, and by the desire for connection - across borders, across languages, across time' MALACHY TALLACKWhen Esa Aldegheri and her husband left their home in Orkney, Esa didn't know that their eighteen-month motorbike adventure would take them through twenty international frontiers - between Europe and the Middle East, through Pakistan, China and India - many of which are now impassable. Charting a story of shrinking and expanding liberties and horizons, of motherhood, womanhood, xenophobia and changing geopolitical situations, Free to Go examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on a motorbike and within relationships. Part around-the-world adventure, part-literary exploration of womanhood, Free to Go is about the journeys that shape and transform us.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.