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- Paperback: 352 pages ; Dimensions (in inches):
0.97 x 8.05 x 5.23
- Publisher: Broadway Books; (May 15, 2001)
- ISBN: 0767903862
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Book Description
Every time
Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to
break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in
the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned
Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place:
Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the
friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar
and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously
funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines
humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity.
Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in
extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes,
even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his
readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever
he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly
obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold
beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia
is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect
guide.
Bill Bryson follows his Appalachian
amble,
A Walk in the Woods,
with the story of his exploits in Australia, where A-bombs go off unnoticed,
prime ministers disappear into the surf, and cheery citizens coexist with
the world's deadliest creatures: toxic caterpillars, aggressive seashells,
crocodiles, sharks, snakes, and the deadliest of them all, the dreaded box
jellyfish. And that's just the beginning, as Bryson treks through sunbaked
deserts and up endless coastlines, crisscrossing the "under-discovered" Down
Under in search of all things interesting.
Bryson, who could make a pile of
dirt compelling--and yes, Australia is mostly dirt--finds no shortage
of curiosities. When he isn't dodging Portuguese man-of-wars or considering
the virtues of the remarkable platypus, he visits southwest Gippsland, home
of the world's largest earthworms (up to 12 feet in length).
He discovers that Australia, which
began nationhood as a prison, contains the longest straight stretch of railroad
track in the world (297 miles), as well as the world's largest monolith (the
majestic Uluru) and largest living thing (the Great Barrier Reef). He finds
ridiculous place names: "Mullumbimby Ewylamartup, Jiggalong, and the supremely
satisfying Tittybong," and manages to catch a cricket game on the radio, which
is like listening to two men sitting in a rowboat on a large, placid lake
on a day when the fish aren't biting; it's like having a nap without losing
consciousness. It actually helps not to know quite what's going on. In such
a rarefied world of contentment and inactivity, comprehension would become
a distraction.
"You see," Bryson observes, "Australia
is an interesting place. It truly is. And that really is all I'm saying."
Of course, Bryson--who is as much a travel writer here as a humorist, naturalist,
and historian--says much more, and does so with generous amounts of wit and
hilarity. Australia may be "mostly empty and a long way away," but it's a
little closer now. --Rob McDonald
From the Back Cover
"What the indefatigable, keenly
observant Bryson did a few years back for the Applachian Trail with A Walk
in the Woods... he does now for the generally undiscovered land Down Under."
— Chicago Tribune
"Vastly entertaining... If there is one book with which to get oriented before
departure or en route to Australia, this is it."
— New York Times
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