Travel novel set in Mongolia – Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer

Submitted: 3rd June 2019

Rough Magic: Riding the world’s wildest horse race

Memoir set in Mongolia – Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer – The Mongol Derby is the world’s toughest horse race. A feat of endurance across the vast Mongolian plains once traversed by the people of Genghis Khan, competitors ride 25 horses across a distance of 1000km. Many riders don’t make it to the finish line.

This is quite unlike any other travelogue, diary, memoir call it what you will – it’s one heck of an adventure!

BookTrail the locations in Rough Magic now

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Setting: Riding a horse across the Mongolian desert

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I really enjoy books like this. People who don’t want to follow the crowd and who dare to do something different. When it’s this different and this crazy….even better. I mean would you go and enter the most difficult derby in the world with no riding experience and aged only 19?

I liked and admired Lara from the start. She’s young and excited about what she’s going to do. She writes with wit and charm and ….she went to Mongolia to ride in the most dangerous and trickiest horse ride. Imagine having the guts to do that!? These horses are wild and often the riders and horses don’t come back. Reckless or adventurous. Totally adventurous I would say. Why not? Go for it. What a memory to tell your grandkids.

The book is honest, raw and emotional and it’s a very different kind of travelogue/memoir to what I’ve been reading so it really did standout. Rant alert – These are the people we need as role models nowadays – rant alert over.

The Mongol Derby is a race of some endurance – the conditions and rules are strict and the more I read, and then researched about this race, the more I was excited for her if not a little scared. It’s a course that recreates the horse messenger system developed by Genghis Khan. So, history, heritage and a young woman with a kick ass attitude. Loved it!

She writes well about her experiences and her feelings and I almost felt like getting on a horse myself when I’d finished. I’ll leave that to her though – I’ll stick to the donkeys on the beach.

Lara, I applaud you and what a journey! Unique, different and I actually cheered when she won the race! Totally caught up in this. REcommended!