When Alana and Roland, a spirited Canadian couple with an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest, embark on an epic yearlong travel adventure around the world with their newborn son and ten-year-old daughter, they think they’re prepared for whatever might come their way.

They soon discover that this is not entirely true.

This charming family love story, sure to inspire wanderlust, is peppered with funny parenting mishaps, thrilling adventures, breathtaking sceneries, unforgettable monuments, and culinary bliss. However, as you are taken through the temples of Southeast Asia, the pyramids of Egypt, the rolling hills of Tuscany, and the African plains, you will also be exposed to the world as experienced by a biracial, blended family. Around the World in Black & White is a tale of self-discovery, racial awakening, resilience, and deeper understanding. This bold, witty, and heartfelt memoir will have you rethinking how you travel, how you see the world, and how the world sees you.

Alana Best grew up with her parents, two younger sisters, and older brother on the traditional lands of the Treaty 4 Territory, the original lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis, also known as Regina, Saskatchewan. As a travel enthusiast, Alana is passionate about being a global citizen, encouraging wanderlust, and living a full life. She believes travel helps create tolerance, understanding, and empathy. She and her husband, Roland, have the pleasure of working and living on the traditional, unceded territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, with their three incredible children. She and her family love their home in Victoria, British Columbia, and will never stop exploring.

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“A myriad of emotions—from anguish to elation—is experienced when traveling on this year-long odyssey in twenty-two countries. Alongside the amazing sights and friendliness of strangers, the author, who is white, reveals the racism, misogyny, and prejudice that she and her Black husband experience. This memoir transports readers on an amazing and revelatory trip.”
—Evelyn Kohl LaTorre, author of Love in Any Language: A Memoir of a Cross-Cultural Marriage and Between Inca Walls

“Alana Best has a knack for making you feel like you are one of her besties being told another great tale of her family travelling adventure. You get her enthusiasm, and you get private glimpses into her life, her delight and despair. But this is no simple lavish travel trip—this is a rich story where Alana explores her own deepening understanding of what it means to be a white woman travelling with her Black husband and the myriad of assumptions and judgements they face along the way.”
—Yvonne Blomer, former poet laureate and author of Sugar Ride: Cycling from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur

“Alana Best tells this story with grace, humor, and candidness. It’s a wonderful tale about not only a family’s grand adventure but also our complex world—its positives and negatives—and how our time to make a difference is short.”
—Jeremy Leon Hance, author of Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac