{"product_id":"the-white-nile-diaries-9781780768922","title":"The White Nile Diaries","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhere was it taking us? In or out of society? I had no fixed address now  didnt want one  didnt need one. It all began at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station  New York  in 1961. Two Princeton graduates  John Hopkins and Joe McPhillips  have returned from Peru  where they dreamed of buying a coffee plantation in the jungle. Not ready to return to a life of work  marriage  and mortgages  they are tempted by a mysterious letter from Kenya. Hatching a plan to ride a motorbike across North Africa  they buy a sleek  white R50 BMW and paint her nameThe White Nileon the fuel tank  in honor of the route they plan to follow. In clear  elegant prose  Hopkins describes deadly salt deserts and fig-laden oases  disappeared travelers and the funerals of young Tunisians killed in the battle for independence. He conjures up the ghosts of ancient Rome in Leptis Magna and of Homers Lotus Eaters in Djerba. They encounter armed vigilantes in the Tunisian desert and outrun Libyan border patrols  barely escaping with their lives. They climb the pyramids of Giza at dawn and ride the Desert Express across the wastelands of the Nubian Desert  but their final adventure  at Sam Smalls Impala Ranch  is perhaps the most surreal of all. Impossibly charismatic  The White Nile Diaries is an incomparable coming-of-age journey  a tantalizing glimpse into another time  when the turbulent world was an oyster for the young  brave  and free.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67913906651189,"sku":"ByrdShop_1780768923","price":99.14,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781780768922.jpg?v=1793958158","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-white-nile-diaries-9781780768922","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}