A vivid, varied account of a globally-minded woman’s intriguing adventures and evolving worldview, Santha Rama Rau’s “informal” autobiography covers a life defined by almost perpetual motion—from her birth in India to an upbringing in England and South Africa, from her education at Wellesley College in the United States to far-flung travel to China, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Afghanistan, Kenya, Spain, and beyond.

Part memoir, part journalism, Gifts of Passage is at once intimate and expansive. Supplementing the narrative of a wayfarer’s return to her roots and portraits of Indian family life, the book provides firsthand accounts of pivotal historical happenings: repression in South Africa, the trial of Jomo Kenyatta, and the early stirrings of Indian democracy.