The Desplazados

A journey of reawakening and self-acceptance, well worth the trip.

- Kirkus Reviews

A classic tale of how sometimes the best way to find your way home is by leaving it. The novel's most vital character is a teacher both literal and metaphoric: the road. It freely offers lessons in how to truly live, thereby providing the very things we will come to live for. In The Desplazdos Martin Zehr has given us a deeply satisfying romance.

- Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of The Perfect Vehicle: What it is About Motorcycles

Martin Zehr's book, The Desplazados, caught me by surprise, as it steps far outside the bounds of practically all other literary works that include motorcycling in their themes. In fact, the protagonist's bike serves merely as a means to an end in his journey of self-discovery, and is allowed to be nothing more than what it is, rather than being burdened with the heavy, stereotypical symbolism most authors seem determined to heap upon all motorcycles. Considerably more cerebral and introspective than what one might expect, The Desplazados is about character development, and offers plenty of that... If you want an interesting story with some real world insights as to what makes so many "real" motorcyclists tick, I think you will find this an interesting read.

- Fred Rau, author of The Motorcycle Touring Bible and former editor of Road Rider and Motorcycle Consumer News magazines.

Friends, patients and a single day's events propel Gregory Barth, middle-aged professional, into confronting a growing dissatisfaction. Disturbed, desperate, and impatient, Barth decides to act before it's too late, transforming an ordinary vacation into an impulsive cross-country odyssey into terra incognita. His road trip, escaping the security of his humdrum routine, brings him into contact with byways of the American West and characters beyond his imagination, while stirring long dormant feelings of intimacy for a woman, Estrella. The Desplazados, through its characters, stories and settings, is the tale of one man's encounters with different worlds that ultimately change his own. Its explorations are reminiscent of the travelers' journeys in Don Quixote and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance