From Monks to Mountain Gorillas

Psychiatrist Ed Kaufman, his therapist-photographer wife and young son travel to exotic locales, always finding high adventures and deep insights on the road ahead. Calculated risks become central to the bonding of this family in a linked sequence of travel essays written by a literary-minded father whose second chapter as a husband finds him in southern California raising a fearless son.

This literary travel memoir by psychiatrist Ed Kaufman sweeps the reader along via touching and funny stories to coveted destinations on five continents in a fast-paced blend of family travel adventure, humor, and poignant insights. At times the author along with his wife and their young son face danger; at other times, Kaufman's family stories capture the inner journey of participating in ancient rituals while traveling in Ethiopia, Tibet, and Papua New Guinea. The result is an odyssey courting risk, yet eventually circling back to family and home.

Author Ed Kaufman is a psychiatrist with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Antioch University. He was awarded fellowships in creative writing to participate in the writing programs in Spoleto, Italy, and in Provincetown, R.I., at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., where he is co-host of Orange County Dime Stories, a national network of monthly readings taking place around the nation. Ed Kaufman moved to Laguna Beach, California, from New York City 34 years ago to work at University of California, Irvine, department of psychiatry, where he eventually became director of education and Chief of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program. Kaufman was medical director of the Genesis program at South Coast hospital and on the Board of ACTION, an AIDS support group in Laguna. He is currently on the clinical advisory board of Laguna's Friendship Shelter.