Lisa Duncan's debut memoir, Chasing Africa: Fear Won't Find Me ​​​​​​Here (Rocky Mountain Books) was officially released last month.

Chasing Africa delicately explores the loss of identity, the gift of health and adventure, and the courage to put oneself first despite guilt, fear, and the pull of family. 

As a teenager, Lisa couldn’t wait to escape suburbia and travel the world. Years later, as a healthy young climber, she was confronted with the depressing realities of her dad’s and her brother’s neurological diseases: Parkinson’s and  progressive multiple sclerosis. In 1996, after watching her dad’s and brother’s bodies fail for five years, she was determined to push fear, worry, and guilt aside to reclaim her adventurous identity the only way she knew how: travel to Southern and East Africa on her own. 

Without Google Maps or the internet, Lisa relied on herself, fellow adventurers, and the kindness of locals while navigating unknown territory. Lisa’s unpredictable adventures and serendipitous setbacks taught her that wonderful things happen when she lets go of guilt and fear. Despite her solitary nature, she discovered that being brave doesn’t mean having to do it alone.

BC BookWorld:

"She writes like a painter and brings her trained eye to every landscape: looking down at the view from her airplane window of the Zambezi River gleaming far below or up at the red dunes of Namibia in the early morning sun."

Caroline Woodward