American Ramble

A Walk of Memory and Renewal

By: Neil King

Narrated by: Will Tulin

A stunning, revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City—an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground.

Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer.

Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met.

What followed is an extraordinary 26-day journey through historic battlefields and cemeteries, over the Mason-Dixon line, past Quaker and Amish farms, along Valley Forge stream beds, atop a New Jersey trash mound, across New York Harbor, and finally, to his ultimate destination: the Ramble, where a tangle of pathways converges in Central Park. The journey travels deep into America’s past and present, uncovering forgotten pockets and overlooked people. At a time of mounting disunity, the trip reveals the profound power of our shared ground.

By turns amusing, inspiring, and sublime, American Ramble offers an exquisite account of personal and national renewal—an indelible study of our country as we’ve never seen it before.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Neil King (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Opened my eyes to places near me

I found the book I tans it opened my eyes to forgotten people and places near me

Thanks, Neil King, for taking me along—

—because that’s exactly how it felt—as though I were walking along those off-the-beaten paths, encountering so many different kinds of people/citizens, rediscovering our history as a nation in fuller, deeper ways—and having the time and the quiet to think, to muse—to take it all in, to let the experience affect me.

Having lived and/or worked for many years in and around the places we walked (e.g., D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York)
only heightened the pleasure and deepened the significance for me of this American Ramble.

Makes you want to recreate his walk- excellent

I liked the depth of the story- the logistics, why he made the walk, the interactions, and the history of the places he visited. Inspirational and I'd love for there to be a whole genre of similar walks. I read "Walk Across America" which takes place in the '70s and it's a nice time capsule. Well done, Neil.

A good companion to Tony Horowitz’s Confederates in The Attic, or Bill Bryson’s Walk in The Woods

A great Sunday listen for people who may not fit into church or at least Evangelical Church.

A poetic, spectacular listen to

A+ everything about this was superb, from the amazing detail and research to the performance.

Amazing book

Incredibly insightful and extraordinarily well written. As Ken Burns stated in an incredibly run-on sentence:
“This is a near perfect book, an exquisitely seen and felt memoir of an American journey; it's not just a geographic journey, full of keen observations and thoughtful insights, but a spiritual one, finding in our complex and sometimes contradictory landscape a mirror in which King's own inner life awakens as he wanders.”

Familiar territory

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am very familiar with the whole route that he took and I was very pleased at how easily he would engage people who he encountered along the way. I think engaging with other people when they don’t expect it really adds to the quality of our lives.

Took a chance - it paid off

I took a chance and downloaded this book without it having a single review. This is unheard of for me. I was so pleasantly surprised by the writing and the overall story. You feel like you’re walking right beside him for the same reasons he is walking. Outstanding. I particularly liked his thoughts on belonging. Don’t pass this one up.

The people he met along the way,

Good, not great. See The Appalachien Trail for référence to a really great walking story.

Id walk a mile….

Perfectly delightful book about a very unusual trip from DC to NYC. The people, places, insights and observations were really fun. I felt o had made the journey with the author. This book now has me plotting my own trip. Well done and thanks.