Front cover for "Road Songs" by Michael G. Katakis

CROW BOOKS | 2026

Road Songs

by Michael G. Katakis

Paperback with French flaps, 128 pages
Published January 2026
Language: English

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL KATAKIS’ WORKS

“Road Songs is a new American classic and a literary Jewel.” Sabrina Gabriele

“A Body in London is a great old fashioned thriller that’s impossible to put down.” Michael Palin

“Dangerous Men is mesmerizing. These are wonderful, devastating stories, filled with dread and death, yet suffused with decency and love. I loved it.” Ken Burns


“. . . Michael travels as an American who, while never forgetting who he is and where he comes from, has the heart, intellect, and courage to explore and challenge the place of his country in the world. Reading his book is like going on a journey with a friend. . . . By the end, one is enriched, entertained, and gains renewed hope in the humanity we share with all other human beings, wherever they might be on our beautiful planet.” Raja Shehadeh

“His is a voice full of common sense and simple humanity that seem to have been lost in contemporary America.” Henry Marsh

“The prevailing characteristic of Michael Katakis’ travel writing is its humanity.” Susan Griffith

“Some of our finest nature writers . . . They reveal a marvelous variety of motivations for stewardship as an approach to living in nature.” Los Angeles Times Book Review

He looked out past the barren landscape and was sure that just beyond the mountains in the distance he would find what he’d lost. He believed many things that weren’t true.

Tom Ryder is a writer and a reluctant film star, and, he is dying.

In 1951 Tom Ryder won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, Highway Cross. After becoming first a national and then international bestseller, the young author was propelled into a world of fame and attention and ran from it all. 

Many believed the book was an autobiographical account of something tragically lost in youth. In the few interviews he ever did he would shrug and repeat it was just a work of fiction. And yet, like the character in Tom's book, he and his dog Josie wandered deserted Western highways for years, stopping beside makeshift memorials to the dead. He kept a notebook with the names  of the dead and some of their stories along with the song that was playing on his truck’s radio when he found them. He called his jottings, road songs and for some unknown reason they gave him peace and haunted him in equal measure. His time was running out but he was sure that what he was searching for was just beyond those mountains in the distance.

Michael Katakis has authored a number of books including A Thousand Shards of Glass: There is Another America, Traveller: Observations from an American in Exile, and Dangerous Men. His work has been translated into multiple languages and his writing and photography have been collected by a wide range of institutions including, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library in London and Stanford University’s Special Collections Department. In 1999, Michael was elected ‘Fellow’ of the Royal Geographical Society and in 2001 his, and Dr. Kris Hardin’s exhibition, A Time and Place Before War, opened at the Geographical Society in London. The British Library acquired Michael’s photographic work for their collection in 2008. The Library is now the repository for his entire work. He lives with his wife in France and England.

“Road Songs is a new American classic and a literary jewel.” — Sabrina Gabriele, published Italian author