“In 21 essays, the poet and Betrayal of Anne Frank author recounts a life of travel that has taken her from a Sufi summer camp in North Carolina, to Chile in the time of Pinochet, to a late-seventies Moscow still firmly behind the Iron Curtain. Laced throughout are encounters with artists and others – some of whom Sullivan has written previous books about – including the reclusive writer Elizabeth Smart, painter Leonora Carrington, and the granddaughter of Joseph Stalin, interviewed for her book Stalin’s Daughter.”
—Emily Donaldson, The Globe and Mail, Fall books preview
“While Rosemary Sullivan is best known for her biographies, especially the award-winning Stalin’s Daughter (2015), the Canadian poet and author has also crafted some exceptional travel literature. Now, in Where the World Was, [she] blends autobiography and travelogue in a collection of essays that add up to a memoir as attuned to Sullivan’s interior life as it is to her travels. The tenor is set from the start in a raw and revealing preface.”
—Brian Bethune, Toronto Star
“Critics and general readers alike have praised Rosemary Sullivan’s wide-ranging works for melding thorough research and readable prose. With Where the World Was, Sullivan has compiled twenty-one “travel journeys” from her forty-five-year career as a journalist and historian. These intimate entries (some of which have been previously published elsewhere) provide a revealing glance into her development as a writer and adventurer…. Readers may notice connections between this empathetic reporting and Sullivan’s more recent works, including Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille. All along, a genuine conscientiousness has been evolving through her research and travel.”
—Trevor Carolan: Literary Review of Canada Substack
“Through her writing, Sullivan has engaged deeply in the big themes of her time. She takes readers around the globe and tells of her encounters with key figures and locations of many of the past century’s epochs…. [She] is the cipher through which we filter these visions of the past, people, and places, which are often connected to key conflicts of the 20th century. Sullivan’s world swirls with historical influences: World War II, international Communism, South American dictators, artists displaced by war, Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. Everywhere she goes she attempts to contextualize, explain, and make meaning out of fragments, skills that made her a powerful biographer. Memoir is necessarily about the past, but this one seems to construct almost a way of being. Sullivan has led a full life, this is clear, but she keeps the focus on others in this book. What is important, she seems to say, is to be a witness to your time. To dedicate yourself to the stories of others and to locate yourself accurately in your place and time.”
—Michael Bryson, The Miramichi Reader
“Sullivan’s Where the World Was is a compelling and enlightening memoir that skillfully navigates the intersections of lives and stories. Her remarkable storytelling ability, coupled with her keen observations and insatiable curiosity, paints a vivid portrait of a truly fascinating individual…. Her writing skills stand out clearly in these stories; she can make anything sound interesting…. Although the book covers a five-decade span, each story is retold as though it happened yesterday. Throughout the book, readers gain a deep understanding of the motivation and perspective of a seasoned writer…. Whether the reader is an avid reader, an aspiring writer, or simply a seeker of captivating tales, the book is sure to leave a lasting mark.”
—Sydney Walsh, Atlantic Books
