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Summary and Reviews of Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart

Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart

Driving Over Lemons

An Optimist in Andalucia

by Chris Stewart
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (9):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2000, 256 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2001, 256 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A funny, generous, wonderfully written account of an family making a life and home in remote but enchanting southern Spain.

At seventeen, Chris Stewart, the first drummer for the rock group Genesis, left the band and launched a career that included stints as a sailor, a sheep shearer, and a travel writer. And he has no regrets.

If he'd become a rock star, he might never have moved with his wife, Ana, to El Valero, a mountain farm in Andalucía, Spain, studded with olive, almond, and lemon groves -- but with no access road, water supply, or electricity. He might never have forged the friendship of a lifetime with his resourceful neighbor Domingo. He might never have had the adventures that resulted in both hilarious disasters and blissful serendipity. He might never have experienced the satisfying complexity of a simple life lived in one of Europe's most beautiful regions, among peasants, farmers, ex-pats, New Age travelers, and a growing family, or come to understand a place and its people with such depth and affection. And certainly Stewart, the eternal optimist, would never have written this delectable book and made us his utterly captivated audience.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

The Daily Mail (UK)
Funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of people and place.... Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream.

The Daily Mail (UK)
Funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of people and place.... Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream.

Kirkus Reviews
A delightful British bestseller ...while genuinely humorous and ultimately light in tone, this vivid, assured debut presents substantial questions about the endurance of rural, agrarian traditions in the face of a supposedly seductive postmodern, wired mass culture.

Author Blurb Peter Mayle
A wonderful antidote to...modern electronic life. I love this book.

Author Blurb Peter Mayle
A wonderful antidote to...modern electronic life. I love this book.

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