The Last Grand Tour
American tour guide Joe Newhouse wants nothing more than to reach Venice. Since moving to Munich after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he's watched his business fail, his wife leave him, and his love for Europe diminish. Now he faces one last ten-day tour with a surly group that doesn't want to be there. As he leads them through the mythic lands of Europe's Romantic past, he grows increasingly disturbed by their stories of earlier lives, puzzled by their desire to be with a man who doesn't arrive, and entangled in an illicit affair that promises to either save him or plunge his tour-and his life-into madness.
Soaked in the Romantic atmosphere and dark deeds of old Europe-as well as the freedoms and hopes of a new era-The Last Grand Tour takes us on a perilous journey through Hitler's Berchtesgaden, Mozart's Salzburg, and Mad King Ludwig's Bavarian fantasyland before reaching its stunning climax in the murky waters of Venice. Along the way, it explores the often-shifting lines between fidelity and freedom, illusion and reality, regret and desire.
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Michael N. McGregor is an author and former professor of creative writing whose first book, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's Book of the Year. The American Association of University Publishers named Pure Act one of its top ten books in American Studies for libraries and it is now available in over 1,100 libraries around the world. The New York Times Book Review described it as "vivid and engaging," and the Oregonian called it "deeply satisfying." McGregor has been a guest on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Think Out Loud." He has also recorded podcast segments for Poetry magazine, City Lights Bookstore, Late Night Library, and Urban Roots. During his twenty-five years of university teaching, he received multiple outstanding teacher awards. He lives in Seattle.
