SHORT

I Could Live Here is a story of life upended, new beginnings, and a redefined meaning of home. An intimate and revelatory traveler’s memoir for anyone grappling with an unconventional life. Perfect for the uncertain nature of our times.

MEDIUM

When an unexpected phone call and its startling consequences sent Ellen Barone and her husband, Hank, packing on a global nomadic adventure—first for a year, then another, until somehow a decade of itinerant rootlessness had come to feel like home—she never expected to find connection and belonging in impermanence. But their temporary circumstances provided a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery and a growing comfort with change, uncertainty, and vulnerability. I Could Live Here is a story of life upended, new beginnings, and a redefined meaning of home.

LONG

In February 2011, Ellen Barone and her husband, Hank, embarked on a nomadic adventure, searching for a life they couldn’t yet articulate. She was forty-seven. He was seventy-four. What followed was an uncertain journey to an unknown future and a life very different from the one they’d been living.

It started with a decision to wander—first for a year, then another, until somehow a decade of slow travel had come to feel like a fortunate life.

As they confronted the question of settling down, the thing that compelled them to stay and to leave, again and again— the paradox discovered at the heart of nomadic life— was a sense of deep connection.

After countless uncertainties and temporary homes across the Americas and Europe from Mexico and Nicaragua to Colombia, Peru, and Portugal, the Barones returned to the U.S. in December 2019 for what they assumed would be a short visit—full of new plans, new hopes, new places to go.

Then—screech—the coronavirus changed everything. Once again, they stepped out of one way of life and into another.

I Could Live Here: A Travel Memoir of Home and Belonging by Ellen Barone is an open-hearted chronicle of change and adaptation and a compelling, tender, and honest exploration of what it means to be simultaneously at home in oneself and the world.

About the Author

Ellen Barone is a writer and wanderer who traded a secure teaching career for a life of creativity and adventure in 1998. Traveling the world as an independent writer and photographer, she parlayed a handful of assignments into hundreds of adventures.

Since 2011, she and her husband, Hank, have embraced a nomadic life that allows her to settle in, dig beneath the surface, and get to know the people and stories behind a place. I Could Live Here (November 2023) is her first book.

When Ellen’s not discovering a new place, writing, or creating, you'll find her reading, geeking out about cool design and local artisans, researching her latest curiosity, or daydreaming in a hammock. She is also the co-founder and publisher of the travel writing website YourLifeIsATrip.com.

Travel writer/photographer Ellen Barone is 47 years old, living a comfortable, creative life with her husband Hank, when an unexpected phone call reveals that the leased New Mexico house they call home will be sold at the end of the month. They hatch a plan to go abroad. They will put everything in storage. Set up life in different places for the length of a visitor visa while they search for a new place to call home.

Hank, an unflappable 74-year-old retiree with the intrepid spirit of a twenty-something, adapts quickly. For Ellen, however, hovering around the excitement of the decision to wander is an insecure part of her that desperately wants nothing to change. A part that only sees all that there is to lose. She wonders if she and Hank are running from or toward something.

They explore, first for a year, then another, until somehow a decade goes by. As the Barones move across the Americas and Europe from Mexico and Nicaragua to Colombia, Peru, and Portugal, they navigate the banal and the extraordinary, the upheaval of social unrest and elation of trip-of-a-lifetime adventures—all alongside the precariousness and displacement of an itinerant life. They’d always been travelers, but this is something else. A deeper vein. Life unmoored from convention with no home to return to.

When the Barones confront the question of settling down, the thing that compels them to stay and to leave, again and again— the paradox discovered at the heart of nomadic life— is a richness of relationships with others. They find themselves cycling back, like migratory birds, to Peru and Portugal, where they make deep personal connections, returning again and again to the same cozy nests.

After 3,229 days immersed in the heady sensations of nearly unfettered freedom and cherished friendships, Ellen and Hank head back to New Mexico for what they assume will be a short visit—full of new plans, new hopes, new places to go.

Then, without warning, it is over. Years of wandering are resigned to memory by the coronavirus pandemic. Once again, the Barones are forced to step out of one way of life and into the unknown. They’ve come full circle.

One night, on the eve of Hank’s 85th birthday, Ellen asks what he envisions next when the solitary pandemic period ends. He shrugs it off, saying only that it’s enough to be together. Ellen thinks about it for a long while. And then it hits her—staying still, moving on, it doesn’t matter The fear of loss, of the unknown, had lost its menace.

I Could Live Here is an intimate and revelatory memoir for anyone grappling with an unconventional life. It’s about the big questions and the complicated matter of nurturing interconnectedness and coming to terms with impermanence. It’s a story—personal and communal—of life upended, new beginnings, and a redefined meaning of “home.”

Links:

Cover Photos

Author Photos

Travel Photos

Readers who will enjoy I Could Live Here include:

Wanderlust enthusiasts

Social and Cultural Explorers

Personal Development Seekers

Writing and Storytelling Enthusiasts

ICouldLiveHereBook.com is a free online resource for I Could Live Here book information.

If you are a bookseller, book trade professional, educator, librarian, reviewer, journalist, or in the media, please contact Ellen with your request for an Advance Reader Copy in PDF, ePub, or Mobi format.

“I Could Live Here is an eloquent ode to the joys and challenges of long-stay travel, and confirmation that home is, indeed, where the heart is.”

— Laura Bly, travel journalist

“I Could Live Here will make you rethink the way you travel and why you travel. It will give you the courage to face uncertainty and even embrace it.”

— Judith Fein, author of Life Is A Trip: The transformative magic of Travel