Italian Life: A Modern Fable of Loyalty and Betrayal by Tim Parks

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Forty years ago, Tim Parks made the bel paese his home. Italian Life is his reckoning with his adopted country, an attempt to get to the core of it, to make sense of it, to fold others' stories in with his own experience - now that he is, in his own words, 'to some degree Italian' himself. The result i s an arresting, on-the-ground account of 21st century Italy told through the eyes of a rich cast of characters, among them students from poverty-stricken Basilicata trying to start new lives in the wealthy gloom of Milan, a priest, a poet, a young professor from Padua, and an Englishman who refuses to toe the line.  At the book's centre is a story of corruption and power. But it is also a celebration of culture and history, fact and fable, sacred and secular, ancient and modern- a thought-provoking, surprising, entertaining and even definitive account of how Italy actually happens.   ...Show more

On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason; Lytton Smith (Translator)

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

A unique approach to climate change that recalls W. G. Sebald.

Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris

$23.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Series: Adventures of the Comma Queen

The Comma Queen returns with a buoyant book about language, love, and the wine-dark sea. In her New York Times bestseller Between You & Me, Mary Norris delighted readers with her irreverent tales of pencils and punctuation in the New Yorker's celebrated copy department. In Greek to Me, she delivers another wise and funny paean to the art of self-expression, this time filtered through her greatest passion- all things Greek. Greek to Me is a charming account of Norris's lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English. Filled with Norris's memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine-and more than a few Greek men-Greek to Me is the Comma Queen's fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own. ...Show more

Hiking with Nietzsche by John J. Kaag

$23.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

A man goes in search of himself in the Swiss Alps with the help of Nietzsche.

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

For centuries, Tibet was known as a hermit kingdom. Its charms were hidden by the natural barrier of the Himalayas to its west and by a reclusive theocratic government ruled by a succession of Dalai Lamas...Nowadays it is not the Tibetans shutting the door, but a paranoid Chinese Communist Party. China has ruled Tibet since 1950, and is a most unwelcoming gatekeeper. In Eat the Buddha, Barbara Demick, award-winning author of Nothing to Envy, journeys to a small town high on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. The residents of Aba have been in an uneasy compromise with the Chinese for decades, living nomadically on the plateau in the summer and moving to concrete housing in the winter, sending their children to monasteries to be educated, practising polyandry as is their custom--yet all the time subject to oppressive restrictions. Travelling in disguise to evade the Chinese authorities, Demick interviewed Tibetans over three years: among them a novice monk contemplating protest suicide, the last princess of the region exiled during the Cultural Revolution and a young woman trapped in a bigamous marriage. Weaving together their stories with the history of China's dominance over Tibet, she creates a vivid portrait of the lives of a people locked in a struggle for identity and independence. ...Show more

The Only Gaijin in the Village by Iain Maloney

$30.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

In 2016 Scottish writer Iain Maloney and his Japanese wife Minori moved to a village in rural Japan. This is the story of his attempt to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village.Even after more than a decade living in Japan a nd learning the language, life in the countryside was a culture shock. Due to increasing numbers of young people moving to the cities in search of work, there are fewer rural residents under the retirement age - and they have two things in abundance: time and curiosity. Iain's attempts at amateur farming, basic gardening and DIY are conducted under the watchful eye of his neighbours and wife. But curtain twitching is the least of his problems. The threat of potential missile strikes and earthquakes is nothing compared to the venomous snakes, terrifying centipedes and bees the size of small birds that stalk Iain's garden.Told with self-deprecating humour, this memoir gives a fascinating insight into a side of Japan rarely seen and affirms the positive benefits of immigration for the individual and the community. It's not always easy being the only gaijin in the village. ...Show more

Magdalena: River of Dreams by Wade Davis

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

A captivating new book from Wade Davis - winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Into the Silence - that brings vividly to life the story of the great Rio Magdalena, illuminating Colombia's complex past, present, and future. Travellers often become enchanted with the first country that captures their he arts and gives them license to be free. For Wade Davis, it was Colombia. Now in a masterful new book, the bestselling author tells of his travels on the mighty Magdalena, the river that made possible the nation. Along the way, he finds a people who have overcome years of conflict precisely because of their character, informed by an enduring spirit of place, and a deep love of a land that is home to the greatest ecological and geographical diversity on the planet. Only in Colombia can a traveller wash ashore in a coastal desert, follow waterways through wetlands as wide as the sky, ascend narrow tracks through dense tropical forests, and reach verdant Andean valleys rising to soaring ice-clad summits. This wild and impossible geography finds its perfect coefficient in the topography of the Colombian spirit- restive, potent, at times placid and calm, in moments tortured and twisted. Both a corridor of commerce and a fountain of culture, the wellspring of Colombian music, literature, poetry and prayer, the Magdalena has served in dark times as the graveyard of the nation. And yet, always, it returns as a river of life. At once an absorbing adventure and an inspiring tale of hope and redemption, Magdalena gives us a rare, kaleidoscopic picture of a nation on the verge of a new period of peace. Braiding together memoir, history, and journalism, Wade Davis tells the story of the country's most magnificent river, and in doing so, tells the epic story of Colombia. ...Show more

The Wild Silence (#2) by Raynor Winn

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Raynor Winn's magical and life-affirming new book, The Wild Silence - the follow-up to the uplifting, Sunday Times, internationally bestselling, Wainwright prize shortlisted, and Costa shortlisted, The Salt Path. In The Salt Path, Raynor and Moth go out to find the sea, the windswept and wild coastline , to find a way through homelessness, to find themselves again. Now, in The Wild Silence, they come back to what should be home, but four walls no longer feel that way. For Raynor, recovering self-esteem and trust in herself, and in others, is harder than she expected. She continues to face Moth's debilitating illness and struggles to find a way to adjust to a life in one place, unmoving. Until an incredible gesture by someone who read their story changes everything . . . Praise for The Salt Path: 'A beautiful book, it really lives up to the hype . . . an enjoyable, gentle yet moving read' Pandora Sykes on The High Low 'A beautiful, thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, human strength and endurance' Guardian 'Mesmerising. It is one of the most uplifting, inspiring books that I've ever read' i ...Show more

The Bells of Old Tokyo: Travels in Japanese Time by Anna Sherman

$33.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

In The Bells of Old Tokyo, Anna Sherman explores Japan and revels in all its wonderful particularity. As a foreigner living in Tokyo, Sherman's account takes pleasure and fascination in the history and culture of a country that can seem startlingly strange to an outsider. Following her search for the l ost bells of the city - the bells by which its inhabitants kept time before the Jesuits introduced them to clocks - to her personal friendship with the owner of a small, exquisite cafe, who elevates the making and drinking of coffee to an art-form, here is Tokyo in its bewildering variety. From the love hotels of Shinjuku to the appalling fire-storms of 1945 (in which many more thousands of people died than in Hiroshima or Nagasaki), from the death of Mishima to the impact of the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. For fans of The Lonely City, and Lost in Translation, The Bells of Old Tokyo is a beautiful and original portrait of Tokyo told through time. ...Show more

'Cherry' Ingram - The Englishman Who Saved Japan's Blossoms by Naoko Abe

$20.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

'Sympathetic and engrossing... a portrait of great charm and sophistication' Guardian The irresistible story of Japanese cherry blossoms, threatened by political ideology and saved by an unknown Englishman Collingwood Ingram, known as 'Cherry' for his defining obsession, was born in 1880 and lived unt il he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change. After visiting Japan in 1902 and 1907 and discovering two magnificent cherry trees in the garden of his family home in Kent in 1919, Ingram fell in love with cherry blossoms, or sakura, and dedicated much of his life to their cultivation and preservation. On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to see the loss of local cherry diversity, driven by modernisation, neglect and a dangerous and creeping ideology. A cloned cherry, the Somei-yoshino, was taking over the landscape and becoming the symbol of Japan's expansionist ambitions. The most striking absence from the Japanese cherry scene, for Ingram, was that of Taihaku, a brilliant 'great white' cherry tree. A proud example of this tree grew in his English garden and he swore to return it to its native home. Multiple attempts to send Taihaku scions back to Japan ended in failure, but Ingram persisted. Over decades, Ingram became one of the world's leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakura both nationally and internationally. Every spring we enjoy his legacy. 'Cherry' Ingram is a portrait of this little-known Englishman, a story of Britain and Japan in the twentieth century and an exploration of the delicate blossoms whose beauty is admired around the world. ...Show more

Couchsurfing in China: Encounters and Escapades Beyond the Great Wall by Stephan Orth

$30.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

China can be a challenging travel destination, with its strict visa conditions, the language barrier and internet censorship. Couchsurfer Stephan Orth chooses a different path than most and gains an insider view of the nation, directly from the living rooms of locals. He talks to them about their dreams and fears, and about where this huge country is heading. Concrete facades sometimes conceal great surprises, and Orth is on a mission to discover the real China. In Couchsurfing in China, the award-winning travel journalist spends three months exploring the Middle Kingdom- from the gamblers' paradise of Macau, to the mountainous region of Yunnan Province, to the city of Dandong on the North Korean border. Orth visits high-tech megacities and remote villages, meeting artists critical of the regime and ethnic minorities forced into re-education camps. Utterly out of place, he finds himself censored as a guest on live TV and almost joins an outlawed sect. On his travels, Orth uncovers the complicated realities of life in a country that encompasses a bewildering mixture of old and new, natural and artificial, beautiful and chaotic - a place poised to become the future number-one world power. The result is an intriguing travelogue full of insight, humour and revelation. ...Show more

Map of Another Town by M.F.K. Fisher

$20.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing