Everywhere But Home: Life Overseas as told by travel blogger Phil Rosen is a collection of various essay-style travelogues about the author’s life living abroad.  Rosen graduated college in 2018 and immediately thought he would go onto to become a graduate student, but had a swift change of heart. We follow him through his time teaching English to kids in Hong Kong, and his travels through other surrounding countries. Throughout the book, Rosen asks himself and his readers many of life’s unanswered questions on being human and finding life’s meaning.

Phil Rosen’s descriptive prose has a way of taking you around the world with him and tingling the senses while doing it. His ability to describe his surroundings makes you feel as if you were right there with him. You feel what he feels. You see what he sees. His creative writing skills provide an extra layer of character to this travel memoir of Asia.

Rosen’s realistic approach to his experiences is what sets this travel memoir apart from any other on the market. He is honest about what is occurring around him, sharing his thoughts on the good and the bad. You can see this depicted when he discusses his thoughts on the strenuous Hong Kong education system. His accounts strip back the pretty Instagram filter that many travel bloggers use to manipulate reality.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was the way Rosen proposed life questions. Sometimes when authors attempt to offer wisdom of any kind, they can come off as condemning. Almost as if the author is saying, “How did you not already know this?”. Rosen takes the same questions we all ask ourselves and walks through them with us, offering what he’s learned from his travels.

Rosen’s discussion of what a country’s culture truly is, I can only describe as eye-opening. There is a difference between tourist towns and attraction and cultural practices. He breaks this down in a beautifully understated way and reminds us of the simple pleasures in life.

This review would not be complete without mention the short story included in the book, The Man From India. To keep this short and spoiler-free, Phil Rosen’s fiction writing is as terrific as his non-fiction, and a huge part of what makes this a must read.

Pages: 189 | ASIN: B08DF3PVJB