Here are eight books that will transport readers to other lands – all from authors appearing in this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival program .
The Wonder Trail by Steve Hely
Part travel guide, part pop history, part comic memoir, The Wonder Trail is the story of Steve Hely’s riotous journey from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America. Throughout his travels, Hely encounters the colourful, the wild and the downright absurd. An award-winning humour writer, Hely has been on the writing floor for shows such as 30 Rock, The Office and American Dad!, and The Wonder Trail is a gallivant Steve-Hely style: razor-sharp, hilarious and fascinating
Find out which MWF events you can see Steve Hely at here
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler
In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard’s passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire, we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. Turbulent stories from the past are brought vividly to life, while a father navigates the unfolding changes in his relationship with his son. Ghost Empire is a revelation: a beautifully written ode to a lost civilisation, and a warmly observed father-son adventure far from home.
Find out which MWF events you can see Richard Fidler at here
White Sands by Geoff Dyer
Episodic, wide-ranging, funny and smart, White Sands is a creative exploration of why we travel from one of Britain’s most original writers. Geoff Dyer pursues all permutations of the peak experience – from a trip to the Lightning Field in New Mexico, to chasing Gauguin’s ghost in French Polynesia; from falling for someone who may or may not be a tour guide in Beijing’s Forbidden City, to tracking down the house of an intellectual hero in Los Angeles.
Find out which MWF events you can see Geoff Dyer at here
Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood
By immersing herself in the life of a small community, and in her ground-breaking mapping projects, artist Kim Mahood seeks to understand her own place in the country she loves, and the disparate cultures that inhabit it. Position Doubtful is a beautiful and intense exploration of memory, landscape, and homecoming – one that offers a unique portrait of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.
Find out which MWF events you can see Kim Mahood at here
Walking Towards Ourselves edited by Catriona Mitchell
Walk in the shoes of some of India’s foremost women writers and thinkers, and go on a journey into their intimate lives, to places you haven’t been. Reaching across different strata of society, religion and language, this anthology creates a kaleidoscope of distinct and varied real-life stories. Told with startling honesty, piercing insight, moments of poetry, and flashes of humour, Walking Towards Ourselves is a timely exploration of what it means to be a woman in India in a time of intense and incredible change.
Find out which MWF events you can see Catriona Mitchell at here
A Literary Tour of Italy by Tim Parks
Tim Parks has delighted audiences around the world with his finely observed writings on all aspects of Italian life and customs for years. This volume contains a selection of his best essays on the literature of his adopted country. From Boccaccio and Machiavelli through to Moravia and Tabucchi, from the Stil Novo to Divisionism, across centuries of history and intellectual movements, these essays will give English readers, and lovers of the Bel Paese and its culture, the lay of the literary land of Italy.
Find out which MWF events you can see Tim Parks at here
The Hollow of the Hand by PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy
Between 2011 and 2014, PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy set out on a series of journeys together to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington DC. Harvey collected words, Murphy collected pictures, and together they have created an extraordinary chronicle of our life and times. The Hollow of the Hand is a landmark project.
Find out which MWF events you can see PJ Harvey at here
Find out which MWF events you can see Seamus Murphy at here
The Bush by Don Watson
Most Australians live in cities and cling to the coastal fringe, yet our sense of what an Australian is – or should be – is drawn from the vast and varied inland called the bush. But what do we mean by ‘the bush’, and how has it shaped us? Starting with his forebears’ battle to drive back nature and eke a living from the land, Don Watson explores the bush as it was and as it now is: the triumphs and the ruination, the commonplace and the bizarre, the stories we like to tell about ourselves and the national character, and those we don’t.
Find out which MWF events you can see Don Watson at here
