The Cycling Swede · Book One
Bye Bye Baghdad
He arrived in Iraq with no job, no plan, and no knowledge of what he was doing there. All he had was an idea: to cycle home.
Out 20 November 2026 · Paperback & Kindle
The book
A long road home
Behind him were travels meant to make him find himself, each leaving him more lost than the last. Ahead lay his first cycling journey, riding in mismatched gear through lands ravaged by natural disasters, terrorism, and war.
It’s a story about strangers who become family for an afternoon, about humor and humility in places least expected, and through it all, about finding a way home.
Everything is true, sometimes with added details to show the truth as I remember it. All the encounters are real, sometimes arranged to appear in their best light. All the people are real, sometimes under a different name.
Inside
Where the road begins
The Cycling Swede moves on two timelines: the ride home from Baghdad, and the years of wandering that led to it.
From the pilgrim crowds of Najaf, through a murmuring basement in Amman, past an island village in India and to the crashing waves on the Basque coast: Bye Bye Baghdad takes you on a journey of strangers who become family for an afternoon, of humor and humility in unlikely places, and of a restless traveler finding his way home.
I
Najaf
Federal Iraq
— 8 days before departure —
“Yallah, yallah!”
His voice rose above all. A short man, He sat legs crossed in a swirling sea of clattering metal trays, boiling pots, and rushing errand boys. His golden skin glittered in the pale light, air thick with sweat, steam, and cumin with a touch of scorched rice. Outside, pedestrians were busy with preparations and commerce for the grand evening. They shouted back and forth, hammered old pots with wooden ladles, and rolled their rickety carts along the potholed road. Yet, in spite of His slight stature drowning in the chaos, His command filled the room. It was not sheer volume that carried His voice through the din. Instead, it was something that shone upon the dark corners of the room and spread its bright spark to all of us. To me.
The story continues in the book, out 20 November.
Stay in the loop
A note when the book is out
One email on release day, then news about Book Two and the stories that didn’t make it into the book. No more than once a month.
The journey
From Babylon by Bike
- Cycled
- 7,275 km
- On the road
- 125 days
- From
- Baghdad
- To
- Stockholm
In the spring of 2024 I set off from Baghdad on a bicycle, in mismatched gear and with no real plan. The plan was simple to say and hard to do: ride home to Stockholm. The road ran north through Kurdistan and Turkey, and on across Europe.
Along the way I kept an online travel journal, posting chapters from the road as the ride unfolded. The journal is the raw account, written in the moment. The books tell the full story, including the years that led up to it.
- Set off
- 8 April 2024, Baghdad
- Arrived
- 10 August 2024, Stockholm
The Cycling Swede
One ride, three books
Book One
Bye Bye Baghdad
Out 20 November 2026
Book Two
The King of Kurdistan
In progress
Book Three
Untitled
In progress
About
Pelle Duveblad
I am a Swedish writer and traveler. Ever since I learned to read, I fantasized about setting out into the world like Tintin or Bilbo, courting dangers and strangers, and then making my way back again to write about it all.
In 2024 I did exactly that, cycling 7,275 km from Baghdad to Stockholm. Bye Bye Baghdad is the first of three books about that ride, and about the people who made it possible.
Talks, events and press
Want to talk about the book, the ride, or an event? Write to me:
I also post stories from the road on Instagram: @duveblad