This is a novel about commitment–a man torn between love and his perception of his professional duty. In their graduating year of high school, Alistair Parker and Virginia Sloan fall in love, but the course of their relationship does not run smoothly. Ginny with her interest in child psychology is intent on marriage and having a family while Alistair’s focus is on a career in journalism and eventually becoming a foreign correspondent. So, they part, but with deep regrets on both their parts.

Alistair’s career takes him around the world reporting on major crises in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa–from the war in Vietnam to the environmental crisis. The issues he deals with are global and persistent in nature, including racial discrimination, political repression, regional warfare, poverty, famine, economic disparity, global warming, and the impact of pandemics. Throughout, Alistair struggles with his conscience due to his inability to make sacrifices that would affect his safety, comfortable lifestyle, and economic well-being even though he recognizes some others do and that they are necessary to deal effectively with these challenges. Simultaneously, he confronts obstacles in his relationships with those he admires but whose behaviour he cannot emulate.

Roads Not Taken spans the lifetimes of its principal characters with unexpected plot twists as well as revealing and entertaining personality insights. It is a novel for our uncertain era when we face intractable issues which must be resolved for the world we know to be sustained.