Cyclettes

Tree Abraham

“Equal parts whimsical and philosophical, Cyclettes extends beyond conventional narrative with illustrations, collages, photographs and other design elements.” —The New York Times

For Abraham, Cyclettes began as a list of every bicycle she has ever known— from her first childhood bike to the second-hand purchases and loaners that have propelled her into adulthood and around the world. The list grew to include other forms of both literal and conceptual cycling, spanning histories and cultures, all encircled by brief memories and observations from an author compelled to move.

Each vignette in this book is a “cyclette”— a circumvoluting entry point to Abraham’s varied illustrations and reflections. From ‘bicycle brain ’to the gyroscopic effect, wild rides in Old Delhi to a tofu farm in Nova Scotia, exhilarating climbs and disappointing descents, Abraham makes connections to our habits and habitats no matter how often we ride a bike. In the face of economic, environmental, technological, and philosophical shifts, and at a time when the very notion of how to live has come into question, Cyclettes offers another kind of freedom: one that finds stillness in motion.

Praise for Cyclettes

"CYCLETTES is a beautifully curated collection of prose and visuals. Abraham finds a way to blend tender childhood nostalgia with insightful, even hard-to-swallow, observations, highlighted against the backdrop of her cycling adventures and trials. Spliced between coming-of-age anecdotes and musings, are bits of educational history around bikes that make this book a truly unique read."

—Hana Shafi, author of Small, Broke, and Kind of Dirty

"I love books like CYCLETTES, where text and image—drawings, charts, maps, collages, photographs, and all sorts of other visual artifacts—intermingle equally, each in service of and scaffolding the other. Then add in some great thinking about the bicycle, a technology through which the self is freed or found, and you have in front of you a book that’s going to make you want to make books of your own, and probably also go for a ride, then make more books."

—Ander Monson, author of Letter to a Future Lover and The Gnome Stories