RUSH drummer Neil Peart's fifth full-length book, Far And Away: A Prize Every Time, was released by ECW Press on April 20th.

National Post's Stephen Baldwin reports:

Far And Away is a reflective, immersion-style travel diary detailing the musician’s motorcycle trips along the back roads of North America, Europe and South America.

“When I write about history or nature or geology, it’s from a first-person point of view,” Peart says. “It’s me riding past a town [by motorcycle] and figuring out why something is the way it is.”

Like many books written by celebrities, the reader’s perception will be unavoidably linked with their perception of Peart. But with the exception of the author’s day job, this is by no means a rock ’n’ roll tome. Instead of sex and drugs, Peart uses Far And Away to express a deep appreciation of nature, through the Laurentian Mountains in deep winter to the vivid sunsets and barren deserts of Death Valley, Calif., to humble South American villages.

“I got terribly lost between Brazil and Argentina, but it caused a beautiful experience. I found myself lost in this little town in the corner of Brazil and basically ended up finding a place to stay just before the sun came down,” Peart says. “There was this combination of West African music and Brazilian music, and I had never heard that combination before. It was a transcendent moment for me. I had been lost, and now I was found.”

Read more at National Post.

A description of Far And Away: A Prize Every Time reads as follows:

Following in the tradition of Ghost Rider and Traveling Music, Rush drummer Neil Peart relates nearly four years of band tours, road trips, and personal discoveries in this introspective travelogue. From the ups and downs of a professional artist to the birth of a child, this revealing narrative recounts 22 adventures from rock’s foremost drummer, biker enthusiast, husband and father. Both playful and insightful, Peart’s love of drumming and the open road weaves throughout the stories as Neil explores horizons that are both physical and spiritual, sharing his observations about nature, society, and the self. Full-color photos round-out this tour of the open road that will resonate with Rush fans and motorcycle enthusiasts alike.