Parker was a physicist who didn’t believe in love. Vivian was a linguist who wouldn’t depend on a man. They met in Munich in 1986 and agreed: careers first, commitment last. Over a year backpacking from Cairo to Cape Town on $20 a day, they encounter witch doctors, the generosity of Africans living with almost nothing, and a worldview where everything has a spirit.  As their Western priorities are challenged, their agreement begins to crumble.

 

Swimming in Air is a memoir that explores the tension between career and intimacy against the backdrop of an epic, pre-digital odyssey through Africa that tests what each is willing to risk for the other. It is a haunting meditation on the choices we make and the time we believe we have.