BELONGING TO THE WORLD: A Journey from Grief to Connection in Every Country on Earth
Winner of the 2026 IndieReader Discovery Awards in Travel, Nonfiction
What’s the book’s first line?
“The last time I saw my wife, Jackie, was on a crisp fall morning in 2017, the day after celebrating her fifty-fifth birthday on October 22.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Some journeys are about seeing the world. Others are about learning how to live again.
After the devastating loss of his wife Jackie, Barry Hoffner was left untethered, struggling to imagine a future without the person who had shared his life and travels. In the silence that followed grief, he made a radical decision: to visit every country on Earth.
As Barry crossed borders and cultures—from conflict zones to mountaintops, from refugee camps to vibrant city streets—he encountered a world far more compassionate, complex, and connected than he had ever imagined. The journey did not erase his loss, but it transformed it.
Belonging to the World is an inspiring memoir of healing, courage, and the profound humanity that binds us across every border.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
After a period of deep grief, after losing my wife in a tragic accident in Africa, I started traveling the world more as an escape, but soon realized that I was connecting with people in a very special, and new way. Even in places that the world told me I should not go to, like Iraq and Afghanistan, I was finding common ground with people in those countries despite our significant differences. That is when I decided that I had a story to tell, not just of travel but of the healing powers of person-to-person connections across our magnificent world.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
People should read Belonging to the World because it’s more than a travel memoir—it’s a deeply human story about what happens after life breaks you open.
At its heart, the book is about grief, resilience, and rediscovering connection in a world that often feels divided and frightening. After losing my wife Jackie, I set out to visit every country on Earth, not to escape my pain, but to understand whether hope, kindness, and belonging still existed. What I found was extraordinary: in places often reduced to headlines about war, poverty, or conflict, I encountered generosity, humanity, humor, and compassion.
Readers who love adventure will experience cultures and places few people ever see. But the deeper journey is emotional. This book speaks to anyone who has experienced loss, reinvention, loneliness, or the need to begin again.
I think people will come away from Belonging to the World with a renewed belief in human connection—and perhaps with a different way of seeing both the world and their own lives.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Only after traveling for a time and realizing that I had an important story to tell of the connections with people I was experiencing around the world and how much their own stories meant to my journey.
Is this the first book that you’ve written?
Yes.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
My foundation Caravan to Class, a US-registered 501c3 has been working education and the empowerment of women across West Africa since 2010, with our feature programs falling under our Bourse Jackie initiative (The Jackie scholarship) named in honor of my late wife. That is my main focus.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
During the writing of my book, I would spend at least two hours a day either writing, researching, taking notes. Since my book was published, when I have an interesting trip I am on, I like to write an article in my substack which usually takes me about five hours or so per article.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The idea that you have a story that you really want to tell and you strongly believe it will resonate and even impact readers, but that it is so challenging to get the story out widely because you do not have any “star” notoriety not a large social media platform.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Make sure, above all, that you are writing for yourself because you really want to tell a story, and know that you will need to put in a lot of non-creative work to get the story out and that outcome is somewhat out of your hands.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Sure, if traditional publishing could ensure getting the story out more widely.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Good health, great relationships and incredible life’s experiences. Other than that, at my more age, I am motivated by people and their stories and of human connection.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Yuval Noah Harari
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Sapiens