Riding the Edge, Michael S. Tobin
Riding the Edge, Michael S. Tobin
List: $23.95 | Sale: $16.77
Club: $11.97

Riding the Edge
A Love Song to Deborah

Author: Michael S. Tobin

Narrator: Luke Welland

Unabridged: 10 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/25/2021


Synopsis

Two soulmates embark on an around-the-world journey, leaving the security of their well-ordered lives in search of larger truths.

Forty-seven years ago, Michael discovered his soulmate Deborah on a dance floor in Keene, New Hampshire. It took her soul a few years and an around-the-world bike trek to fully reciprocate. Riding the Edge is the astonishing tale of the six-month odyssey that profoundly shaped the next 564 months of their lives together.

Taking place in 1980, Michael and Deborah—an American Jew and American Arab, respectively—leave the security of their well-ordered lives as psychologists sleepwalking toward marriage and family to explore and take risks in search of life’s larger truths. What they find is a story of magnificent vistas and memorable moments that enliven their senses to the beauty of the world even as it also reveals the vilest of human cruelty. Simple meals become transcendent experiences and chance encounters are serendipitous markers along a road directing them toward personal and spiritual transformation. Each place leaves its mark—Paris and the French countryside, Italy, Greece, war-torn Beirut, Israel—and each person an imprint even as Deborah and Michael struggle to find the truth of their love. Will they find a life partner or merely a stepping-stone to another, deeper connection?

It’s a journey that has a mind and heart of its own. In the end, each story, kindness, and cruelty uncover the humanness that connects all living things and shows that love is a powerful, healing life force.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Deb on September 11, 2021

Psychologists Michael and Deborah have been together for 6 years and decide to seek “truth and love” while riding their bikes around the world. “I share this story with you in the hope that the lessons we learned will inspire each of you to love with more passion, to take more risks for the truth, a......more

Goodreads review by Janilyn on August 29, 2021

A touching story of Michael and Deborah early in their relationship. Set in 1980, Tobin chronicles the couples ride across Europe. Discussing their ups and downs, the people they met, and their experiences, it was interesting reading. Tobin reveals why he needed to write their story at the end. He i......more

Goodreads review by Gail on January 11, 2022

Several years ago, a literary friend put a book in my hand—After You, Marco Polo by Jean Bowie Shor. She said that this is the best book she has ever read: I must read it. When I recently read the preface to Riding the Edge: A Love Song to Deborah, I was reminded of friend Karen’s favorite book; bot......more

Goodreads review by Anne on August 21, 2021

Riding the Edge by Michael Tobin, read by Luke Welland, is described on the title as a "Love Story to Deborah," and I must say I agree. It is a memoir focused on a six-month bicycle journey through Europe and the Middle East in 1908; a journey made by thirtyish Michael, a non-practicing American Jew......more

Goodreads review by Jackie on August 17, 2021

This is a memoir about Michael's love with Deborah -- someone he found to be not only beautiful but brilliant, fun, passionate and full of inspiration after meeting her at a dance floor in 1974. She was everything he hoped for and more. But sometimes, life isn't that simple. Before settling down with......more