Adi Alsaid has lived something of a nomadic life… which may be one of the reasons he was inspired to write about a road trip in his debut novel, Let’s Get Lost. The book (excerpted here) bowed on July 29th, and is told from the point of view of four teenagers whose lives are all changed by an unexpected stranger: the enigmatic, road-tripping Leila. As Leila helps each character along his or her journey, Let’s Get Lost delves into the mystery of its central traveler: who is she, and what is pushing her further along the road? Alsaid, who grew up in Mexico City and has lived in Israel, Las Vegas and California, said his love of travel was sparked in, of all places, the Houston airport.
At 16, Alsaid recounted, he left Mexico City to attend a basketball camp in Pennsylvania. En route—it was his first time flying on his own—he wound up on a long layover in Texas. But, instead of frustration, he found excitement. “I realized I liked airports, and I liked traveling,” he said. “When I got to college, and started a part-time job, almost all of the money I made went into traveling.”
Alsaid, who has been on two of his own cross-country jaunts, admitted that Let’s Get Lost was inspired, in part, by his own adventures in the States—he said he loved the idea of telling the story through different points of view because “when I travel I always love picturing what’s going on in other people's minds”—and one thing he hopes readers will take away from the novel is a desire to hit the road themselves. “A cousin of mine, from Israel, who now lives in San Jose, told me that after he finished the novel he said to his wife: ‘I feel like buying an old Chevy, taking a week off of work, and going cross-country.’ I hope readers have the same experience; I want to inspire them to go on a trip as well.”
Traveling now to promote the novel, Alsaid, who is stopping all over the country on his book tour, also hopes readers get a moment of solitude from the novel. While he wants to drive them to be restless and discover new places, he also hopes Let’s Get Lost will give them a moment to reflect. “When I finish reading a book, one of the things I enjoy most is the moment of peacefulness [I get]. I look around, and the world seems a little more literary.” If his readers can find that, he will feel he’s done his job. That, of course, and if they invest in an old Chevy.
