About The Voluntourist
• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (May 8, 2012)
VOL·UN·TOUR·IST
n. 1. A guy who attempts to save the world in an attempt to save himself.
2. Someone who can only do it two weeks at a time.
When Ken Budd was thirty-nine, his father collapsed after eighteen holes of golf. Ken and his wife raced to the hospital—but it was too late. In the weeks that followed, as grieving friends revealed how his father had changed their lives, Ken started questioning his own life—and admitting, after years of denial, that he and his wife would never have children.
And then, still struggling with grief—his grief at losing his father, his grief at not being a father—Ken received an e-mail with the subject line: “Katrina Relief Volunteer Opportunities.” He signed up. He went to New Orleans. And he kept volunteering: Costa Rica, to teach English; China, to work with special-needs children; Ecuador, to study climate change; the West Bank, to assist refugees; Kenya, to care for orphans. His goal: to find purpose by helping others, one trip at a time.
Wry, funny, and heartbreakingly honest, The Voluntourist will linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.
About Ken Budd
KEN BUDD is an award-winning writer and editor whose writing credits include Smithsonian, the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, Stuff, Washingtonian, Modern Humorist, Opium, and Worldview. Ken lives in Burke, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife.
Ken’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, June 5th: BookNAround
Wednesday, June 6th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, June 6th: The Written World
Thursday, June 7th: Travel Spot
Monday, June 11th: Lisa’s Yarns
Tuesday, June 12th: Joyfully Retired
Tuesday, June 19th: West Metro Mommy
Saturday, June 23rd: A Life Sustained
Wednesday, June 27th: readerbuzz
Friday, June 29th: Knowing the Difference