The Race to the Future

“In The Race to the Future, Kassia St. Clair chronicles the 8,000-mile caper that helped changed the landscape forever… . The Race to the Future is a vivid re-creation of the escapade, but the author also takes pains to demonstrate how what happened then determined the way we live now … [The] question that kept me glued to the book was, Who will survive? The terrain the racers traversed was a near-roadless wilderness dotted by remote settlements; gasoline had to be sent ahead by train or horse… . But as dangerous as the racers’ path was, as devoid of comfort and shelter, I found myself yearning to see that world as they saw it, long before it looked like everywhere else.” – Peter Sagal - New York Times Book Review”’The Race to the Future’ is more than an account of a fabled contest. Ms. St. Clair places the event in historical context by alternating chapters of the motorists’ week-by-week progress with other chapters filling in the background … [H]er prose is clear, her narrative drive controlled … She has mined a range of sources, from published reports by race participants to those of near-contemporaneous travelers. Aficionados will appreciate the care the author takes to disentangle disagreements and inconsistences among firsthand accounts.” – Sara Wheeler - Wall Street Journal“The Peking-Paris race was certainly less of a ‘race’ than it was an adventure — but that doesn’t make it any less of a compelling story, and Kassia St. Clair is the perfect person to bring it to life. I had so much fun reading this that I want to call it a romp, but I also don’t want to cheapen the wealth of knowledge that The Race to the Future brings. If you’ve ever been interested in anything automotive, this is a perfect little sampling of just what the history of the automobile has to offer.” – Elizabeth Blackstock - Jalopnik“An incredible and stirring story… . Its opening pages resemble Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the comic film from 1965 about a fictional air race to Paris. This contest features the same amateurish mix of competition, camaraderie, and national pride, as well as a larky sense of adventure.” – Guy Stagg - Spectator“This oddball collection of adventurers gripped the public’s imagination, helping to transform the motor car from just an experimental novelty into a mass-market mode of transport that changed the world forever.” – Jeremy Warner - Telegraph“A captivating history of a seemingly impossible journey and one of the most challenging endurance trials in the history of motoring… . St. Clair’s narrative is full of surprises.” – Miranda Seymour - Literary Review“Kassia St. Clair’s glorious account of a transglobal race at the birth of the automobile has to be read to be believed. Woven into the narrative is an elegant history of the motor car and its impacts on society: a tale of ambition, innovation, adventure and empire… . The Race to the Future manages to be both an exhilarating and a profound account of one of the early twentieth century’s most bizarre episodes.” – Philip Ball“Kassia St. Clair has clearly done her research… . She tells a thrilling tale.” – Country Life“St. Clair is a gifted storyteller, deftly recounting the timeline of the rally while highlighting the volatile landscapes of the countries it traveled through.” – Booklist“St. Clair prunes away the mythology and nationalistic propaganda that has grown up around the race, on the basis that the real story does not need embellishment. It is entirely the right approach, and the book will appeal not only to car and sports aficionados, but to general readers interested in how the automobile, global communications, and media marketing combined to become the defining traits of the modern world.” – Kirkus Reviews

Kassia St. Clair specializes in telling gripping stories about the overlooked and the everyday. She has written about history and culture for publications including the Economist, Elle, and Times Literary Supplement. The author of The Golden Thread and The Secret Lives of Color, she lives in London.