When NPR contributor Scott Huler made one more attempt to get through James Joyce's Ulysses, he had no idea it would launch an obsession with the book's inspiration: the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey and the lonely homebound journey of its Everyman hero, Odysseus.

No-Man's Lands is Huler's funny and touching exploration of the life lessons embedded within The Odyssey, a legendary tale of wandering and longing that could be read as a veritable guidebook for middle-aged men everywhere. At age forty-four, with his first child on the way, Huler felt an instant bond with Odysseus, who fought for some twenty years against formidable difficulties to return home to his beloved wife and son. In reading The Odyssey, Huler saw the chance to experience a great vicarious adventure as well as the opportunity to assess the man he had become and embrace the imminent arrival of both middle age and parenthood.

But Huler realized that it wasn't enough to simply read the words on the page —he needed to live Odysseus's odyssey, to visit the exotic destinations that make Homer's story so timeless. And so an ambitious pilgrimage was born . . . traveling the entire length of Odysseus's two-decade journey. In six months.

Huler doggedly retraced Odysseus's every step, from the ancient ruins of Troy to his ultimate destination in Ithaca. On the way, he discovers the Cyclops's Sicilian cave, visits the land of the dead in Italy, ponders the lotus from a Tunisian resort, and paddles a rented kayak between Scylla and Charybdis and lives to tell the tale. He writes of how and why the lessons of The Odyssey —the perils of ambition, the emptiness of glory, the value of love and family —continue to resonate so deeply with readers thousands of years later. And as he finally closes in on Odysseus's final destination, he learns to fully appreciate what Homer has been saying all along: the greatest adventures of all are the ones that bring us home to those we love.

Part travelogue, part memoir, and part critical reading of the greatest adventure epic ever written, No-Man's Lands is an extraordinary description of two journeys —one ancient, one contemporary —and reveals what The Odyssey can teach us about being better bosses, better teachers, better parents, and better people.

Praise for No-Man's Lands

"This is an epic tale about an epic tale. Scott Huler writes with much learning, passion and humor (if not dactylic hexameter). I can't think of a better guide to this journey."
— A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically

"Each of the 18 stages of Huler's largely improvised trip brings an illumination, often personal, which the author connects to Homer's poetry and to the larger meaning of Ulysses' mythic perambulations, translating an ancient odyssey into a modern quest that is by turns daunting, humorous and instructive."
—Chicago Tribune

"Compelling and thoroughly inspiring, Huler's latest is a brilliant follow-up to his acclaimed book Defining the Wind."
—Strand Bookstore

[star] "Not only did [Huler] develop a new appreciation of a classic piece of literature but he also found a new side of his own character: not only a husband and a father but also a lone traveler on an epic journey. ... Huler tells the story in a breezy, entertaining style, deftly mixing historical and literary backstory with what happens on the road, making us laugh while introducing us to places we've never seen and people we've never met (but with whom we somehow feel connected). Recommend this one highly to fans of adventure memoirists like Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill."
—David Pitt, starred review in Booklist

"Fierce curiosity is the sharpest tool in this writer's kit, and its keen edge is evident everywhere here. ... Part travelogue, part lit-crit, part self-discovery, part paean to home – and all in all, a most fantastic voyage."
—Kirkus Reviews

No-Man's Lands

Click here to see Scott's own photos of his epic journey.

Click here to see Scott's well-traveled copy of The Odyssey.

Click here to see what Scott brought back.

An illustrated map of his journey can be found here.

Listen to the NPR commentary that started it all where Scott Huler officially gives up on Ulysses.

In this commentary, Scott Huler finds himself, against his better judgment, "Stuck in Dublin with the Bloomsday Blues."

Audio

Click here to hear classics professor Peter Smith read the first lines of The Odyssey in ancient Greek.

Click here to hear bouzouki music from the Monastiraki plaza, beneath the Parthenon in Athens.

Click here to hear the call to prayer echoing through the streets of Canakkale, near Troy.