ONE YEAR OFF: Leaving It All Behind for A Round-the-World Journey with Our Children [Hardcover]

David Elliot Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 1999

A year off from work. A meandering, serendipitous journey around the globe with the people you love most. No mortgage, no car payments, no pressure. It sounds like an impossible dream for most people -- too expensive, too many responsibilities, too far-fetched.

But one day, David Cohen, former editor of the popular Day in the Life book series, decided to make this dream a reality. On the brink of middle age -- with a thriving business, a bustling family life, and a hectic schedule -- Cohen came to the conclusion that life is short and you have to live your dreams while you can. Over the course of several months, he and his wife, Devyani Kamdar, sold their house, their cars, and most of their other possessions. They closed their business and pulled their three young children out of school.

Then -- with just a suitcase, a backpack, and a passport each -- the whole family set off on a rollicking journey, full of laugh-out-loud mishaps, heart-pounding adventures, and unforeseen epiphanies. In Botswana, the family's tiny motorboat is charged by an angry hippo. In Zimbabwe, a pride of lions ambushes a Cape buffalo outside the Cohens' small tent. Off the coast of Australia, their young daughter is caught in a vicious riptide. Through all these adventures and many more, the Cohens learn to live together as a family twenty-four hours a day. And David and Devyani get the rare opportunity to enjoy their children without the blare of television and video games, to rediscover the world through their children's eyes and gain new perspective on their own lives and priorities.

In One Year Off, you can join the Cohen family on a trek up a Costa Rican volcano, roam the Burgundy canals by houseboat, take local ferries through the Greek Islands, and discover the romance of Istanbul by night. Later, as the Cohens wander farther off the tourist trail, you can drive through the teeming villages of Rajasthan, traverse the vast Australian desert, and discover the beguiling charms of Cambodia's Angkor Wat and the hidden shangri-las of northern Laos.

One Year Off is an adventure most people want to live sometime in their lives. Reading this humorous, heartfelt story is the next best thing to leaving it all behind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On the one hand, you've got to like this book. When David Elliott Cohen turned 40, he freaked out, sold everything, swooped up his wife and three kids, and took a year off to travel around the world--from Costa Rica and Burgundy to Zimbabwe, Laos, and Sydney--with clan in tow. This gutsy dive into the non-antiseptic, non-Americanized world (a dream for some), offers an entertaining peek into family life on the road. Written in a personal, personable e-mail style, it's often hilarious.

On the other hand, you may think Cohen is nuts. His kids cause scenes, break bones, and are often bored with the international scenery. Their family travel budget is measly--$60 a day to cover food for parents, children, and babysitter in places like Paris and Zurich. You can't help wondering why Cohen didn't just go the luxe route with the wife and leave the kiddies (including the 2-year-old) at home. While Cohen seems quite likable, as does his wife, Devi, there are moments when you want to report them to a child protective agency. Why are they endangering the lives of their kids--disregarding warnings not to take children into the African game reserve where they are likely prey for hyenas, and trekking deep into nature to see waterfalls and volcanoes with a toddler--just because they're suffering from midlife crises? After reading a year's worth of mishaps and adventures--amusing though many are--you may feel like a grandparent, wishing Mr. Cohen and wife would just take their kids home. More a travelogue than a guide, this unusual book nonetheless is filled with many examples of what not to do if you feel inclined to drag your children abroad for a year. After reading this, however, you may not feel like going at all. --Melissa Rossi

From Publishers Weekly

Nostalgic for his adventurous youth, Cohen quit his job at age 40 and embarked on a year-long voyage with his wife, Devi, their eight-year-old daughter and two sons, aged seven and two. This account of their adventures consists of 23 humorous and gripping e-mails that Cohen (an editor of the coffee-table book series that includes A Day in the Life of America) sent to friends and relatives during their 1996 journey to 14 countries, including Costa Rica, Italy, Greece, France, India and Australia. Having the children along sometimes made the Cohens anxious for their safety, but watching them thrill at the sight of wild giraffes, elephants and hippos on an African safari, for example, offset their parental fears. Although the children did not share their parents' fondness for visiting museums and churches, they were delighted to live on a houseboat and see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. A trip to a Jain temple near Delhi (Devi's father is Indian) so enthralled the family that they got locked in after closing hours. Although this year-long vacation included some harrowing moments, such as when daughter Kara nearly drowned off the coast of Queensland, the author considers the rewards of this unconventional trip for himself and his family well worth any risks or inconveniences they encountered. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Carol Mann. Author tour. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684836017
• ISBN-13: 978-0684836010
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is this all there is?, December 22, 2000

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ONE YEAR OFF: Leaving It All Behind for A Round-the-World Journey with Our Children (Hardcover)

The idea behind David Cohen's One Year Off is either wildly appealling or profoundly horrifying; he and his family got rid of everything - house, cars, jobs, presumably even their dogs (something that irked me quite a bit) - packed up the husband, wife, three kids, and babysitter, and went around the world. My reaction to this endeavor was that, crazy or brilliant, it *had* to produce an interesting story. And reading One Year Off, you do get the feeling that that story is there. But Cohen doesn't tell it.

What Cohen gives readers instead is email. From various points in the trip, he sent email to his friends and family back home, and after he got back he collated them into One Year Off. And while I'm sure the updates were engaging and interesting to his email list - who wants to read a chapter-long email about someone else's adventures? - they just aren't sufficient for a book. Huge gaps are left in the tale (near the end of the book, nearly six months of the year off disappear, with no email updates or interpolation from Cohen) and lots of the details that stay-at-homes would find fascinating don't appear. The chatty, superficial style of the writing is fine for email, but it leaves readers with slightly less than half a story. The book even *looks* like an insufficient essay; the hardcover edition has wide leading and kerning and big margins and font - all the Freshman English Essay Extender tricks, but in book format.

Even more frustrating, Cohen doesn't appear to understand where his real story lies, in the family interactions and family experience of travel. The real hero of the book, it emerges from between the lines, is his wife, who copes heroically and competently with their adventures. (Devyani does most of the planning and takes most of the responsibility. Cohen makes most of the mistakes. When a kid gets damaged or lost, it always happens in Cohen's care. When someone has a breakdown or snaps, it's usually Cohen.) But we hear relatively little about Devyani, and not much about the kids, either. Instead, Cohen chooses to write about mostly his own reactions to fairly commonplace destinations - France, Italy, Australia - as though he were producing a Fodor's Guide instead of a travel memoir.

In short, the idea of the book is fascinating, so much so that it is well worth reading, even as it is. I love the idea of someone else packing up his family and going around the world - then telling me about it so I don't have to *do* it. I just wish that a different author had had that idea, had taken this trip. The book would've been marvelous in the hands of a writer who was a more careful observer, and who was willing to write a little more.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best part was the kids..., December 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: ONE YEAR OFF: Leaving It All Behind for A Round-the-World Journey with Our Children (Hardcover)

I liked best the segments dealing with the Cohens children and how they responded to the various sights on their trip. They paid little attention to natural scenery, had to be "bribed" to see the Louvre, but loved the safari and the museum with the implements of torture. Reading of their escapades reminded me of my own childhood when my sibs (ages 7-10) traveled Europe (only) with our parents during a year living in Scotland.

I am sadly disappointed in Amazon for choosing a reviewer who apparently did not read the book through and through. The Cohens were NOT endangering their chidren. Kids get wild and scamper about -- and bones can get broken at home falling off a bicycle. The older two Cohen children will remember this trip all of their lives. (25 years since our year in Scotland, our memories are still vivid!) And we did things, too, that would put fear in a parents heart. Yes, kids can be heedless of danger, but is that any reason for them to stay at home?

The Cohens did not recklessly choose to go a game preserve -- that was their daughter Kara's request. And they explain in the epilogue why they didn't go the luxe route!

I admire the Cohens for doing what they did. And I heartily admire my own parents, too -- reading this book made me realize just how much my own parents had taken on, and we didn't do half the stuff the Cohens did.

More power to all of you intrepid parents traveling with your kids!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but Club Med-ish in its approach to the world, March 10, 2000

By 

Stephanie Gowin - See all my reviews

This review is from: ONE YEAR OFF: Leaving It All Behind for A Round-the-World Journey with Our Children (Hardcover)

As a San Francisco resident planning to take a similar trip in five years, I was especially interested in David Cohen's story.

The book is extremely enjoyable, funny, and frustrating at the same time. The simplistic e-mail style of writing works well for a light read, but I often hoped the author would add deeper meaning or insight to an experience. At least he didn't pepper the text with LOLs and smilies, I suppose.

Traveling primarily by plane and car, instead of by trains and buses, the family has little chance to become immersed in the local culture; in some places, they seem to barricade themselves from the locals instead of trying to sort out just how fearful they need to be. And where are all the stories of the kids becoming friends with the local children?

So, although I thought the book was fun, and I will read it to my three, it was frustrating in its documentation of missed chances to really learn.