In May 2007, leaving Chinaâs Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. Itâs guided by one Dina Bennett, the worldâs least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?
Funny, self-deprecating, and marred by only a few acts of great fortitude, Peking to Paris is first and foremost a voyage of transformation. The reader is swept on a wild, emotional ride, with romance and adversity, torment and triumph. Starting in Beijing, Dina and her husband, Bernard, limp across the Gobi, Siberia, Baltic States, and south to Paris in a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle, while Dina nurses the absurd hope that she can turn herself into a person of courage and patience.
Writing for every woman whoâs ever doubted herself and any man whoâs wondered what the woman traveling with him is thinking, Dina brings the reader with her as she deftly sidesteps rock-throwing Mongolians and locks horns with Russians left over from the Interpol eraânot to mention getting a sandstorm facial and racing rabbits on a curvy country road. Come along for the ride with a dashboard diva!