Signs of Life is no ordinary cycling travelogue. In fact, to refer to it as a ‘cycling travelogue’ is probably doing it a significant disservice as the book is much, much more than that. The bicycle itself plays a secondary role in this six-year odyssey around the planet. If you are looking for tails of mechanical tribulations, inconveniently timed punctures or day-by-day breakdowns of kilometres cycled and towns visited, you might want to look elsewhere. Dr. Fabes’ approach is much more selective. How could it be anything otherwise when in one volume of writing such a long period needs to be addressed? That said, he manages to be selective without making the reader think they have been short changed. Many of the 75 countries are mentioned only in passing or not at all. Even one or two of the continents do not take up as much space as you might imagine, especially in the early years as he makes his way through Europe and Africa. This might have been a very long, very slow journey for author; it is anything but for the reader.
