Rough Magic. Lara Prior-Palmer
Praise for Rough Magic
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Daily Mail, Esquire, Electric Literature, and Literary Hub
Finalist for the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition Award in Adventure Travel, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, and the Steppes Travel Adventure Travel Book of the Year Award
A BuzzFeed Book Club Official Pick
“If you like your memoirs to revolve around singular experiences, Lara Prior-Palmer’s Rough Magic delivers.”
—JOHN WILLIAMS, The New York Times
“An inspirational tale of struggle—dehydration, injury and isolation—ultimately overcome through grit and sheer willpower.”
—THOMAS GEBREMEDHIN, The Wall Street Journal Magazine
“This is no fresh-forged mythic hero, but rather a young woman who’s still doubting, still equivocating about her right to seek greatness . . . To her credit, the heroine of this story never claims to be flawless, nor even to be a heroine. Ultimately, the book lingers in the mind partly for its fearless prose and partly for its refusal to obey that tired old victorious arc of the journey narrative. Prior-Palmer both embraces the race and disavows it. She pulls back to observe the minutiae of the moment, the marmot holes that riddle the steppe and the infinite, individual blades of grass that paint it green. She offers no easy morals on these dual modes of life and of narrative . . . As Prior-Palmer senses on her journey, reconciling the wisdom of the everyday with the instinct for timelessness and mythmaking is a life’s work—work to which Rough Magic is an engaging guide.”
—ELLIE ROBBINS, The Washington Post
“Excellent prose and rigorous honesty . . . An unusual pleasure to read . . . Prior-Palmer writes with a dash and boldness few writers possess; her language seems sui generis . . . Her narrative alchemy is remarkable; in every chapter, she turns boredom to suspense and back again. The Derby is at once heart-stoppingly close and a miserable slog to which we already know the ending. That shifting—heroism to comedy, glamour to stinking holes in the ground—creates a tension far more interesting than the question of who’s going to win the race, or how.”
—LILY MEYER, NPR
“The author’s prose is poetic, and while the race and Mongolian landscape are conjured beautifully and intensely, the book’s emotional impact lies in the nuanced portrait of its subject searching for answers beyond the life she’s lived so far.”
—DAVID CANFIELD, Entertainment Weekly
“Think the next Educated or Wild. Palmer’s memoir of beating the odds to become a horse champion is an inspiring saga of perseverance—and a classic underdog tale.”
—Entertainment Weekly, 1 of the 15 Most Anticipated Books of the Year
“What unfolds, Cheryl Strayed–like, is her thrilling gallop to the finish line.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine, One of the Best Books by Women of the Season
“Rough Magic succeeds on its realness and Prior-Palmer’s unsparing analysis of herself and the scene . . . Even in the down moments, when one of her ponies is temporarily injured and she’s struggling, the fast-paced book is lyrical and full of tight, action-packed sentences. It reads like it came bursting out of her.”
—HEATHER HANSMAN, Outside
“Taking off on a horse into the Mongolian Steppe sounds like the bracing inverse to an overpopulated, busy urban life, but having the skills and grit to pull it off is another thing entirely. Lara Prior-Palmer attempted the Mongol Derby not really knowing what she was getting into; she ended it knowing much more about herself, and a race champion besides.”
—ESTELLE TANG, Elle
“It feels so tired to call a book inspiring, but that’s exactly what Rough Magic is . . . Thanks to Lara’s uncanny ability to make the reader feel like they’re in this race with her, you’ll be captivated from start to finish—and find yourself missing the book when it’s over.”
—MEHERA BONNER, Cosmopolitan
“Forthright and exhilarating . . . A frank and delightful blend of extreme sports and travel writing.”
—ERIN KEANE, Salon
“An instant classic memoir . . . With whip-smart sass and achingly beautiful observations on life, Prior-Palmer easily breaks us in as she canters across the wild verdant steppes of Mongolia, where the vastness is matched only by the author’s unbridled spirit of adventure. We’re reminded that despite battling bone-deep fatigue in sweat-soaked clothes, we too have what it takes to stay upright—no matter how many times we may get knocked down.”
—LAUREN MATISON, Shape
“Forthcoming, perceptive and humorous . . . Prior-Palmer’s account of her race across the Mongolian steppe is consistently joyful. It reminds us that joy can encompass chronic stomach pain, jammed thumbs, soaked jodhpurs, lost maps, angry boys throwing stones and the brutal tedium of 1,000 kilometers on horseback . . . Her gleeful words alone are worth the ride.”
—MORGAN HUNTER THOMAS, Ms.
“First-time author Prior-Palmer transforms from hopeless 19-year-old underdog into surprising champion of the grueling 2013 Mongol Derby in this exhilarating, visceral account of her attempt to win a 1,000-kilometer horse race across the Mongolian countryside . . . Filled with soulful self-reflection and race detail, this fast-paced page-turner is a thrill ride from start to finish.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Page by page, Prior-Palmer tunes us in, slows us down to her speed, to pony paces, and we begin to attend to the present moment just as she does . . . At every turn, Prior-Palmer’s writing is brilliant and clear-eyed and demonstrates more wisdom than any philosopher’s theories.”
—ABBY TRAVIS, San Francisco Chronicle
“An astonishing and hair-raising memoir that you, too, will race to finish.”
—Newsweek
“In this sensual, spiritual memoir, Prior-Palmer recounts her grueling journey through immense physical hardship, and her surprising transformation from underdog to champion.”
—ADRIENNE WESTENFELD, Esquire, One of the Best Books to Read This Season
“Absolutely riveting.”
—BuzzFeed
“[Prior-Palmer’s] gorgeous, sensual depiction of this race is a literary marvel; it feels like you are riding alongside her across the desolate steppes; her verbal acuity makes vivid the most elusive of landscapes; her triumph becomes ours.”
—KRISTIN IVERSEN, NYLON
“An awesome (like literally awesome) memoir of how Prior-Palmer became the youngest person to finish, not to mention the first woman to win ‘the world’s longest, toughest horse race.’ That would be the ten-day Mongol Derby, which is organized based on the messenger system used by Genghis Khan. So, no big deal or anything.”
—EMILY TEMPLE, Literary Hub
“[A] stirring new memoir . . . Many, many readers are going to be charmed by Rough Magic, whether they can tack up a horse or not, and rightly so. The setting is exotic. The challenge is extreme. The protagonist is winsome and imperfect . . . The magnitude of what she ultimately achieves ‘stun[s] her into writing,’ but it’s not healing that Prior-Palmer seeks, or even liberation. It’s the ‘world in the raw,’ something many of us have learned to crave.”
—ALYSON HAGY, Literary Hub
“The narrator’s peculiar syntax, unabashed youth, and victory against a hell of a lot of odds kept the book in my happy hands.”
—COURTNEY