'Songlines' or 'Dreaming Tracks' are what all Europeans call the labyrinth of invisible pathways that meander all over Australia. To Aboriginals, they are the 'Footprints of the Ancestors'; they are both intricate sources of personal identity and territorial markers. From such ancient line, Bruce Chatwin has been able to trace a great deal about an Aboriginal culture as complex as it is different from our own. The conflict between the two ways of life mirrors that within 'civilised' man himself. Disputes over the right to excavate land that is sacred to wandering tribes highlight the importance of myth and instinct in the human psyche. What might in other hands seem theatrically picaresque, Bruce Chatwin transforms into something approaching the scale of Greek tragedy. . .
Bruce Chatwin
What Am I Doing Here
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
WHAT AM I DOING HERE (the question Rimbaud asked in Ethiopia), because it is more ragged than anything else he wrote, tells us more about him - his interests and friends, if not his passions. He writes of his father, of ... Buy or find out more →
In Patagonia
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
IN PATAGONIA is a Quest or a Wonder Voyage. It is about wandering and exile. Bruce Chatwin travels to a remote country in search of a strange beast and, as he goes along, describes his encounters with other people whose ... Buy or find out more →
On The Black Hill
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
ON THE BLACK HILL is an elegantly written tale of identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till the rough soil and sleep in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the ad... Buy or find out more →
The Viceroy Of Ouidah
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
Francisco Manoel da Silva, a poor Brazilian sailed to the African kingdom of Dahomey in the early 1800s, determined to make his fortune in the slave trade. Armed with nothing but an iron will, he became a man of substanc... Buy or find out more →
Songlines
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
'Songlines' or 'Dreaming Tracks' are what all Europeans call the labyrinth of invisible pathways that meander all over Australia. To Aboriginals, they are the 'Footprints of the Ancestors'; they are both intricate source... Buy or find out more →
Utz
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
Bruce Chatwin's bestselling novel traces the fortunes of the enigmatic and unconventional hero, Kaspar Utz. Despite the restrictions of Cold War Czechoslovakia, Utz asserts his individuality through his devotion to his p... Buy or find out more →
Smiljana's picks
Tree Of Smoke
$22.99 – Paperback book / Picador
Winner of the 2007 National Book Award.
Tree of Smoke the name given to a "psy op" that might or might not be hypothetical and might or might not be officially sanctioned is Denis Johnson's most gripping, visionary and a... Buy or find out more →
Averno
$26.95 – Paperback book / Farrar Straus & Giro
In a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, Averno is a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time resisting their reconciliation. "Averno" is an extended lamentation, its long, rest... Buy or find out more →
Songlines
$12.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
'Songlines' or 'Dreaming Tracks' are what all Europeans call the labyrinth of invisible pathways that meander all over Australia. To Aboriginals, they are the 'Footprints of the Ancestors'; they are both intricate source... Buy or find out more →