Product Description

Tansy plans to go travelling with her boyfriend after her alcoholic mother dies. At the last minute he bows out and she finds herself drunk and coked-up - as ever - on a plane ti Vietnam and wondering why. Will she return to London skinny, tanned and wise, as planned?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #446141 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.76" h x 1.14" w x 5.08" l, .56 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
It's New Year's Day and the year isn't kicking off well for Tansy: her mother's dead, she's a cocaine addict and her boyfriend has just left her. A trip around the world seems like the only option except that she's not interested in seeing the world, just escaping from it, and the last people she wants to hang out with are backpackers.

Like a lot of travellers on the Lonely-Planet-led Asian Grand Tour, Tansy is intensely irritating at first. Always on the look out for the "real" Vietnam--the one in which she can walk around "like a model, fanning myself gently, strolling into ancient temples and learning about inner peace"--she is opinionated, narrow-minded and remarkably naive (for a supposed media luvvy). Once she has shrugged off her addiction to lines of coke, skinny lattes and Nicole Fahri jumpers, she becomes more appealing. So by the time she's fallen for Max, a fellow traveller, she'll have won you over and you'll be just as worried as she is about the serial killer who appears to be on her trail.

Emily Barr is a former Westminster researcher who now writes for the Guardian and the Observer. Backpack is her first novel and, like Tansy, takes a while to find itself. City-girl pretensions jostle with shoestring-style travelogue and it is only when it hits full-throttle thriller mode that Barr's strength as a novelist becomes apparent. Be prepared for echoes of The Beach--hardly surprising given that Barr was an extra in the film. Also be prepared to get itchy feet--if nothing else, you'll be tempted to reach for that backpack and slap on the insect repellent.--Jane Honey

From Publishers Weekly
Giving the tired single-girl school of fiction a much-needed shot in the arm, Barr concocts a stylish, astringent antidote to the usual sugary fare. Liberated by her alcoholic mother's death, Tansy Harris plans a yearlong tour of Asia with her off-again-on-again boyfriend, Tom. When he backs out, Tansy decides that traveling solo will be fabulous: she will meditate, she will do yoga, she will develop a new cosmopolitan persona. Of course, her journey does not go as planned. The Asia that Tansy finds is impoverished, malodorous and unfashionable not at all like the Asia she has seen in travel magazines. Disappointed and lonely, she befriends a group of backpackers, a species of traveler she disdains for their lack of style (as the title suggests, this attitude will be dramatically revised). These nomads help Tansy to understand and enjoy her surroundings; they also lead her to a delightful new man named Max, although Tansy regards her tryst with him as a holiday fling. Tom is her true love never mind that Max is generous and loving while Tom is nasty and self-absorbed. This tangle gives the novel a romantic spin, but it also prods Tansy into some much-needed introspection. There is a murder mystery thrown in, which could be intrusive but is intriguing and deftly woven into the plot. While tragedy never overburdens the story, Tansy's reliance on alcohol and drugs is candidly depicted, as is her unhappy relationship with her mother. Caustically hilarious and very entertaining, the novel carries emotional impact without schmaltz and rises above the usual Britpop fluff. Barr's is a welcome new voice. (Jan.)Forecast: This debut was a bestseller in Britain, and word of its charms should spread quickly.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Following her mother's funeral, Tansy winds up in the hospital after overdosing on cocaine and alcohol. Soon after, the 28-year-old party-girl decides she needs a change and plans a year-long trek through Southeast Asia with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Tom. He characteristically backs out at the last minute, but Tansy decides to go anyway, and in the end, she gets more than she bargained for. From the moment she arrives in Saigon, she is forced to shed her preconceived notions about people, herself included. She examines her own dependency on alcohol and drugs, falls in love with someone she initially dismissed, and becomes increasingly afraid she is somehow linked to a string of murders of female backpackers in cities on her itinerary. Tansy's first-person narrative is interspersed with e-mails between her and her friends and family, and although at first this device seems gimmicky, it becomes integral to the plot. Barr mixes many elements--adventure, romance, mystery--and successfully juggles them in a fast-paced and enjoyable tale. Beth Warrell
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