A PATCH OF PARADISE
The desire to leave stressful city life behind and move to a tropical island is, for most, just a dream. Gaia Grant decided to turn that dream into a reality. Packing up her family and travelling through Asia – overland by train through India, climbing mountain peaks in Nepal with her toddler in a backpack, she eventually found an idyllic setting in Bali. But this was only the beginning of an exciting adventure for Gaia and her family.

In A Patch of Paradise, Gaia discovers the many sides of paradise. She shares her experiences of gradually being drawn into the exotic heart of Bali, before discovering the anguish and heartache of living in a country in turmoil. The island’s vibrant culture and unique community lifestyle provides a peaceful retreat, but even paradise cannot escape the pain.

The book describes how Gaia and her husband embark on the challenge of finding and setting up a home in a thatched beach hut in a Balinese village, and how they learn the importance of finding enjoyment in simple pleasures, of giving and receiving in equal measure. Gaia is able to draw readers into the daily delights and challenges of island life – as well as the trials of living and working in a country in dramatic transition – with both humour and sensitivity. By providing an inspiring personal perspective, the rewards of following dreams with a determined spirit and an open heart are revealed.

Seven years after arriving on the island she and her husband now run a highly successful international business from the same thatched hut they found when they arrived.

A woman's search for a life in Bali
“I can walk out my front door onto a white sandy shore, or duck out the back into a coconut grove and pluck fresh pawpaw from the trees. I can feel as though I am worlds away from the twenty-first century – yet whenever I re-enter my thatched bamboo hut the contemporary world comes to me. I have found the best of both worlds.” 

A Patch of Paradise is an inspiration for anyone who has dreamt of breaking out and finding a different way to live. Take the adventure of your lifetime with this evocative memoir of a woman who sought – and achieved – a permanent seachange.