A Sense of the World | In the Media

TIME Magazine
“Moving, mesmerizing...A Sense of the World is inspiring--but in the real way, the way most "inspirational" books aren't. Holman wasn't a Fear Factor thrill seeker; he was a deeply Romantic figure, a man ransacking the globe for peace of mind even as he fled the demons of disappointment and bitterness nipping at his heels. He, and readers everywhere, owes Roberts thanks for leading him back into the light.” --Lev Grossman [full text]

San Francisco Chronicle
A Best Book of the Year “The detail in A Sense of the World is so palpable, one gets the feeling that Roberts actually began to channel Holman. This impression is reinforced by the book's neo-Victorian voice: a risky style sustained by Roberts' absolute command of language and rhythm. A vastly entertaining, always informative and often astonishing account.” --Jeff Greenwald [full text]

Washington Post
A Best Book of the Year “An eloquent and sympathetic biography. Roberts’s vibrant prose and meticulous recreation of Holman’s world offer modern readers a chance to see what Holman saw as he tapped his way around the globe.”--Rachel Hartigan Shea [full text]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A Best Book of the Year “The book succeeds in large part because of Roberts' tenacity, his skill at explaining blindness to the sighted and his marvelous way of stringing words together. A masterpiece of biography, travel writing and medical journalism.” --Steve Weinberg [full text]

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
A Best Book of the Year “A Sense of the World is a admitted act of rehabilitation [from obscurity], and it's an act Roberts carries off with verve. Roberts has achieved much. His research is meticulous, and, combined with such an engaging and likable character as James Holman, a person lost to history is now rediscovered.” --Dan Danborn [full text]

Kirkus Reviews
A Best Book of the Year [Starred review] “From newcomer Roberts, the first and very welcome, full-scale biography of a great, early-19th-century world voyager who also happened to be blind. Roberts...himself deserves readers' admiration for not only making each step a pleasure to read, but for opening our eyes to so remarkably forgotten an individual. A polished and entertaining account of an astonishing wayfarer."

Publishers Weekly
[Starred review] “In this vibrant biography…Roberts does Holman justice, evoking with grace and wit the tale of this man once lionized as ‘The Blind Traveler." [full text]

Seattle Times
“The story of (Holman’s) life is that of a man surmounting his handicap, but it’s also a beautifully clear distillation of the 19th century mind, seen through the experiences of someone with a leaping intelligence, an exquisite sensibility and an inability to stand still.” --Mary Ann Gwinn [full text]

Chicago Tribune
“The intrepid biographer who attempts to rescue a virtually unknown subject from the annals of obscurity is faced with a formidable challenge. Roberts startles us with the difference of the times and draws the novelty and difficulty of Holman’s adventures into relief. While his mission was perhaps too personal and his successes too ambiguous to render him indisputably great, Holman's indefatigability and his 'deeply agreeable soul' illustrate a more beguiling sort of achievement. ” --Danielle Chapman

Boston Globe
“Roberts makes the kind of knowing yet unobtrusive guide you would want at your side on a trip. When he steps in to explain such matters as the effects of blindness on other senses, the slave trade in Africa (which Holman helped battle, with little success), or the insidious nature of malaria, the book gains a larger context that gives Holman's story greater meaning. An admirable work, testament to the determination, resourcefulness, and skill of not only its subject, but also its author.” --David Maloof

NPR
“A gutsy work of nonfiction that now demands to be known. From tales of a sea war with Old Ironsides to an account of a trip up a spewing Vesuvius, through crowded cities and across frozen tundra with a metal-tipped cane, James Holman's life as told in this biography reads like a dare to get out of the house and live! Except you won't be rushing anywhere once you start the first page.“--Ketzel Levine [full text]

America Magazine
“A remarkable series of adventures...Jason Roberts tells a story that is, in many respects, as incredible as it is entertaining.” --Robert Walch [full text]

New York Daily News
“Through meticulous research, Roberts launches readers into the epic journey of history’s great blind traveler. With intrigue and humor, Roberts brings Holman fully to life.”--Michelle Icahn [full text]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Roberts has done a remarkable job of resurrecting Holman from obscurity, painting a portrait of a complex and compelling persona. He also succeeds in re-creating the broader social, political and physical contexts of the world and times through which Holman traveled. Nor does he miss the poignant philosophies and ironies involved.”--David Bear [full text]

Buffalo News
“An extraordinary biography. A splendid writer who clearly loves his subject...Roberts has made his hero one for the history books. One cannot help but hear Holman’s spirit applauding.” --Karen Brady

The Gazette (Iowa)
“A Sense of the World sports two essential ingredients for a gripping read: an undeniably fascinating subject and a writer with the flair to bring that subject to life. Painstaking research has been transformed into enthralling prose that illuminates the period and places of Holman's journeys. A true pleasure. ” --Rob Cline

Willamette Week (Portland, OR)
“Roberts brilliantly recreates what it must have been like for a blind stranger in strange lands. A tour de force, not only for its innovative research into a life that is terra incognita, but for the masterful way it conveys a towering spirit who illuminated the world with every sense but his sight.” --Matt Buckingham [full text]

Contra Costa Times
“So little is known about James Holman that Jason Roberts' vivid new biography of his is a feat akin to, well, a blind man traveling around the world. Holman’s remarkable life story, coupled with Roberts’ extraordinary gifts as a storyteller, make this a fascinating read.” --Peter Magnani

Library Journal
“What Holman decided to do with his life after losing his sight was amazing and inspiring...[his] accomplishments deserve Roberts’ labor of love, a well-written popular history.” --Robert J. Andrews

Booklist
“Combining reflections on blindness with the particulars of Holman's career and travels, Roberts reveals thorough research through a perceptive, expressive narrative.” --Gilbert Taylor

School Library Journal
A Best Book of the Year “An engaging account of a most undeservedly obscure figure. This volume is an obvious addition to any number of booklists, from biographies to nonfiction that reads like fiction.” --Dori DeSpain

Santa Cruz Sentinel
“Like other recent nonfiction masterpieces, e.g., Longtitude, The Professor and the Madman, Devil in the White City, Roberts weaves character, catharsis, theme and subtext together--all the features of a highly-readable narrative.” --Chris Watson

Vancouver Voice
“Reads like an adventure novel and illuminates like a sacred text. The book proves the maxim that truth is stranger than fiction.” --Jack V. Booch

Durango Telegraph (Durango, CO)
“ I’ve read no other story that makes me feel as if I’m missing out on worlds of sensations because I’m so dependent on my eyesight. Pick it up and check it out, and get a look into the world through the senses of a man driven to experience everything our world could offer.” --Joe Foster [full text]

CNN.com
"The subtitle of Jason Roberts' book A Sense of the World (HarperCollins) is intriguing: "How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler." The story is even more so." [full text]

Midwest Book Review
“A vivid memoir hard to put down: any interested in adventure travel will find this a fine, absorbing survey.” --Diane C. Donovan

Booksville
"Nothing short of remarkable. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy reading history, biographies, travelogues and adventures." [full text]

Shelf Awareness
“A fascinating account...Roberts has written an engaging biography of a most unusual man, who 'Jane Austen would have recognized . . . immediately as a Military Gentleman, dashing yet soulful, suitable for a central role in one of her romances.' An excellent book for fans of travel literature and biography.” --Marilyn Dahl

INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS

Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Holman...is an extraordinary character to bring back to our attention, but Roberts has done more than that: he has made Holman the spinning centre of a story that gathers in all manner of intriguing ideas, people and things. The pleasure in this biography is not only the life it recounts but the evident delight with which its author veers off on whatever needs writing or thinking about next. It’s what biography, an often dubious enterprise, can do at its best. Roberts should be proud of his achievement in this sensitive and imaginative book.” --Jenny Diski

Metro (UK)
“Astonishing. Roberts crafts Holman's uplifting tale into an energetic narrative, brimming with fascinating detail and often deeply perceptive, which leaves you feeling anything is possible.” --Siobhan Murphy

The Guardian (UK)
“Roberts has done Holman justice and brought to light the full story of one of the most remarkable lives ever lived. A brilliant re-imagining. This warm-hearted and sensitive account should give Holman his due: a place in the pantheon of great travelers.”--Kevin Rushby [full text]

Daily Telegraph (UK)
“It is hard to take a blind travel writer seriously; but this book makes it possible. In this admirably balanced and entertaining book, Jason Roberts, an American writer who stumbled on Holman's story by chance, has brought his remarkable subject back from obscurity.” ---Anne Chisholm [full text]

The Spectator (UK)
“There is much in this engrossing tale to delight us. One understands that Roberts feels compelled to assert that the 'story may at times appear improbable but it is true'. A Sense of the World would be a good read, even if the facts were in dispute, but they aren't. [Holman's] story has found an author with an enviable ability to tell the tale.” --Sandy Balfour

Western Mail (UK)
“A tale of the indefatigable nature of the human spirit...as uplifting as it is amazing.”

The Travel Magazine (UK)
“A marvellous blend of travel, biography and history and a great tribute to a man of rare spirit.”

The Australian (Australia)
“A Sense of the World is the best book I read this year, superb as biography, history and travel writing: three strands of excellence. Some traveller! And Roberts is some writer. ” --Peter Corris

Sydney Morning News (Australia)
“It took tremendous skill to extrapolate on the salient facts to produce this enthralling book...marvelously vivid and sympathetic.”

Good Reading Magazine (Australia)
(highest rating). “A pleasure to read, this is an extraordinary and uplifting tale.”

Courier Mail (Australia)
“A charming read. Intelligent, informative and inspiring...An absorbing work.”

Herald Sun (Australia)
“Roberts wisely tells this extraordinary story without embellishment. The tale will fill you with wonder. In a word: remarkable.”

FEATURES

Publishers Weekly
[Q&A] An short interview with the author by PW's Chris Barsanti: "One begins to understand the need to do full justice to the individual." [full text]

San Francisco Chronicle
[Q&A] "After a vagabond youth, Jason Roberts stumbles on a rich story of a blind traveling man." [full text]

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Interview by Regis Behe: "Roberts was stunned by another insight that came to him after three years of research: the nonvisual world is more complex, more varied, than the visual world." [full text]

BALA Magazine (Brazil)
An overview of Holman's adventures, as rediscovered and recounted in A Sense of the World (in Portuguese). [full text]

National Public Radio
An interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition, with an excerpt from A Sense of the World. (August 19, 2006) [audio ]

Public Radio International
An interview with Anne Strainchamps on To The Best of Our Knowledge; program entitled Wherever You Go, There You Are. (July 13, 2006) [audio ]

BBC Radio Four
An appearance on the Excess Baggage program, hosted by John McCarthy. (September 9, 2006) [audio ]