When you read about someone sailing around the world, it’s usually a dotcom millionaire or a professional adventurer. Brave or Stupid? tells a very different story. It’s an everyman tale about a middle-aged, seasick electrician with no money who suddenly and for no reason decides to sail around the world. It’s the story of Yanne Larsson, a man with a dream born not out of a passion for sailing or a search for identity or the need for a challenge. This is the story of a simple handshake. One of the old-fashioned, ironclad ones.

A casual suggestion over wine with best friend Carl Andersson turns into one of those ideas that just won’t go away. Twenty-four hours later, a handshake decides it. The little details—buying a boat, learning to sail, and saving up money—take five years, but in 2002, the two men leave Helsingborg, Sweden on a three-year voyage that will change them forever. Storms, tropical diseases, drama, love, and comedy—their story is an adventure like no other. Brave or Stupid? is a book for anyone who has ever gone beyond what is sensible and realistic to discover a whole new world outside and a whole new person inside. This is a book for anyone who still believes in the power of dreams. And handshakes....