Preface -- Learning to live -- The unexpected support -- A blistered beginning -- The darker path -- Trust your gut -- Lou-Lou -- Lessons in fortune -- The path to fluency -- The man with the machete -- Thieves in the tunnel -- The note in the desert -- Emptying out -- Road to Arica -- The top of things -- The rapid descent -- A dying dream -- Echoes of anguish -- San Sebastián -- Finding the way -- The escorts -- Leaving the Maghreb -- The pigeon and the boar -- The family from Krk -- Turkish wedding -- The lights of Tbilisi -- Attack in the mountains -- The closing of the world -- The suspect -- Butterfly Valley -- The final adventure -- The shadows of a new moon -- The dull pain of it all -- The wildfire -- Winter in the west -- The homecoming -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgements -- A final note of gratitude.