Writers exploring the world

 

Mint condition. Rare book. PB. 384pp. Not available from Booktopia. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia. 

Featuring the work of more than 28 writers from upwards of 20 countries, this collection transports us to the frontiers of twenty-first century literature.

In these pages, some of the most accomplished writers in world literature&;among them Edwidge Danticat, Ha Jin, Cynthia Ozick, Javier Marias, and Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka, Günter Grass, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, and Naguib Mahfouz&;have stepped forward to introduce us to dazzling literary talents virtually unknown to readers of English. Most of their work&;short stories, poems, essays, and excerpts from novels&;appears here in English for the first time.

The Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman introduces us to a story of extraordinary poise and spiritual intelligence by the Argentinian writer Juan Forn. The Romanian writer Norman Manea shares with us the sexy, sinister, and thrillingly avant garde fiction of his homeland&;s leading female novelist. The Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri spotlights the Bengali writer Parashuram, whose hilarious comedy of manners imagines what might have happened if Britain had been colonized by Bengal. And Roberto Calasso writes admiringly of his fellow Italian Giorgio Manganelli, whose piece celebrates the Indian city of Madurai.

Every piece here&;be it from the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Caribbean&;is a discovery, a colorful thread in a global weave of literary exchange.

Edited by Samantha Schnee, Alane Salierno Mason, and Dedi Felman

Anxious travel

 

Mint condition. PB. Rare book. 280 pp. Amazon sells for over $50. Our price $30 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Journalist-about-town Phil Brown has travelled widely but always reluctantly. Whether pursuing a tailor-made suit in the back alleys of Hong Kong, souvenir hunting in Ubud or dodging potholes on the road to Kathmandu, he shoulders a veritable kitbag of travel phobias.

With his more adventurous wife Sandra, Phil worries his way around the world, seeking the comfort of cable TV and 24-hour room service. Against his better judgment, he tackles the rainswept peaks of Scotland, the icy alienation of the Rockies and even the high Himalayas.

Travels through Russia

 

PB. Mint condition. 352pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Road of Bones is the story of Russia's greatest road. For over 200 years, the route of the Vladimirka Road has been at the centre of the nation's history, having witnessed everything from the first human footsteps to the rise of Putin and his oil-rich oligarchy. Tsars, wars, famine and wealth: all have crossed and travelled this road, but no-one has ever told its story.

In pursuit of the sights, sounds and voices both past and present, Jeremy Poolman travels the Vladimirka. Both epic and intimate, The Road of Bones is a record of his travels - but much more. It looks into the hearts and reveals the histories of those whose lives have been changed by what is known by many as simply The Greatest of Roads.

This is a book about life and about death and about the strength of will it takes to celebrate the former while living in the shadow of the latter. Anecdotal and epic, The Road of Bones follows the author's journey along this road, into the past and back again. The book takes as its compass both the voices of history and those of today and draws a map of the cities and steppes of the Russian people's battered but ultimately indefatigable spirit.

Rare classic on Indian travels

 

Mint condition. Rare book. 320pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From an award-winning author whose books have all become modern classics, "Indian Balm" is written beautifully - witty, poetic, informed, full of colour and insight. It is a fascinating journey through past and present India, explaining a region far off the beaten track. 

"Indian Balm" is the captivating account of a journey Paul Hyland made along the little-known course of the sacred Godavari river in Southern India: a pilgrimage through both his past and India's present. It is the story of the search for his ancestors, missionaries and traders, who settled in the region generations ago and of their Balm - a wonder cure for all sorts of ailments and afflictions. It is also a fascinating and enlightening journey through India today. 

Wading through the country's contradictions and irritations, its ugliness and its beauty, Hyland encounters both the exotic and the commonplace. He meets snake charmers and sadhus, bogi men and horn dancers, witnesses ancient rituals and observes the most simple aspects of daily life. Indian Balm is an extraordinary and, above all, unique journey - vivid, intimate and revealing - travel writing at its colourful best.

Phillip Adams on India

 

Excellent condition. 222 pages. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A West Australian explores the world

 

Rare book. Mint condition. 182pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Scourfield is former travel editor of the West Australian newspaper.

From his most recent, travels, Stephen Scourfield brings together some of his most fascinating journeys and encounters in the book Travel Etcetera. From the giant tortoises of Mauritius to the carbon ledgers of India and mai tais of Hawaii. From the temples of Bangkok to the frigid history of the Yukon. The book looks at the world in a personal and often amused way. It is a literary journey that interprets the very nature of travel.

Travels in Spain

 

Mint condition. PB. 384pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

This book takes the reader on a journey from the earliest settlements on the Iberian Peninsula, through the influences of the Romans, the Goths and the Muslims, the traumas of expansion and the end of the Empire, right up to the present.

Riding on a donkey across Spain

 

Very good condition. PB. 336pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Ludicrous, heart-warming and improbably inspirational, Spanish Steps is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.

Being larger than a cat, the donkey is the kind of animal Tim Moore is slightly scared of. Yet intrigued by epic accounts of a pilgrimage undertaken by one in three medieval Europeans, and committed to historical authenticity, he finds himself leading a Pyrenean ass named Shinto into Spain, headed for Santiago de Compostela.

Over 500 miles of extreme weather and agonising bestial sloth, it becomes memorably apparent that for the multinational band of eccentrics who keep the Santiagan flame alive, the pilgrimage has evolved from a purely devotional undertaking into a mobile therapist's couch.

'Hailed as the new Bill Bryson, he is in fact a writer of considerably more substance and the jokes come thick and fast' Irish Times

A Scotsman rides a motor bike across America.

 

Mint condition. PB. 303pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Follow much-loved Scottish comedian Billy Connolly across Route 66 on this unforgettable journey, filled with music, modern history and hilarious stories.

Billy Connolly first dreamed of taking a trip on the legendary Route 66 when he heard Chuck Berry belting out one of the greatest rock 'n' roll records of all time - and now he's finally had the chance to do it. Travelling every one of its 2,278 miles on his custom-make motorbike, Billy's journey takes him past many of the best-known icons in the US: the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, and the funky neon-lit gas stations and diners that once lined the route.

Billy also has the chance to get to know the people who call it home, from Mervin the Amish carpenter, to fellow banjo enthusiast and obsessive instrument collector Rob, to Angel, one of the many people determined to keep the spirit of the Mother Road alive. Funny, touching and inspiring in equal measure, the tales he gathers on the way tell the story of modern America.

With his unrivalled instinct for a good story, and the gregariousness that has made him a comedy legend, Billy Connolly is the ultimate guide to the ultimate road trip.

Travels in Mongolia 1902

 

Mint condition. PB. 170pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

In the years following the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 British diplomats undertook several consular missions to remote areas of China and Mongolia. On the journey described here, Consul C.W. Campbell travels north from Peking across the Gobi Desert into Mongolia. On his route he describes the history, landscape and the way of life of those he meets. Uncovered Editions are historic official papers now available in popular form.

Travels across the African continent

 

Mint condition. PB. 352pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Welcome to the latest hilarious instalment in the travels of Peter Moore, bestselling author of NO SHITTING IN THE TOILET, THE WRONG WAY HOME and THE FULL MONTEZUMA. This time Peter has found the perfect antidote for a broken heart- to pick up his backpack and trek from the southernmost tip of Africa to the pyramids of Egypt by any means possible. But of course!Needless to say, almost every country along the way is in a state of political agitation and Peter must grapple with wild animals, civil wars, natural disasters and corrupt governments. Travelling on his own, it's inevitable that Peter falls in with the usual motley crew of locals and fellow travellers, and has plenty of misadventures -all recounted in his hilarious, gut-wrenching, bottom-clenching style.'Moore has a parched dry wit, the solid brass cojones of a true traveller and a rare eye for the madness of the wider world.' JOHN BIRMINGHAM

The best American travel writing

 

PB. Mint condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

he Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction.

Travels through Pakistani territory once occupied by the Taliban

 

Mint condition. Amazon sells this book for over $120. PB. 226pp. Our special price $60 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Northern Areas of Pakistan are truly magnificent in their beauty ranging from majestic mountains that kiss the sky, enchanting valleys, and fascinating terrain with forests, rivers, and glaciers. These remote areas exhibit a tranquil sense of magic with the absence of commercialization and an ethnic culture relatively unchanged by modernity. This volume presents an account as well as a guide to travelling in the Northern Areas for the inexperienced as well as the seasoned traveller. The author writes about trekking, accommodation, food, landscape and the overall travelling conditions.

This is an excellent guide to the traveller on a budget of 20-30 dollars a day and is useful as a backpacker tool. The book is both a travelogue, detailing a series of journeys, as well as a guide and is essential for anyone interested in this untarnished region. Historical and social information is provided along with a key that designates precise distances and security conditions. Thirty-three photographs showing the splendour of the Karakorams and the Western Himalayas are included.

Walking through Gallipoli

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. 298pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

This book normally retails for over $50.

Every year tens of thousands of Australians make their pilgrimages to Gallipoli, France and other killing fields of the Great War. It is a journey steeped in history. Some go in search of family memory, seeking the grave of a soldier lost a lifetime ago. For others, Anzac pilgrimage has become a rite of passage, a statement of what it means to be Australian. 

This book, first published in 2006, explores the memory of the Great War through the historical experience of pilgrimage. It examines the significance these 'sacred sites' have acquired in the hearts and minds of successive generations and charts the complex responses of young and old, soldier and civilian, the pilgrims of the 1920s and today's backpacker travellers. 

This book gives voice to history, retrieving a bitter-sweet testimony through interviews, surveys and a rich archival record. Innovative, courageous and often deeply moving, it explains why the Anzac legend still captivates Australia.

Another white hippy woman discovers India?

 

Mint condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD Travels through Vanuatu to protect marginalised women

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney, NSW

RARE BOOK. Mint condition. PB. 248pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Bridget Isichei had no idea what she was in for when she accepted a two-year volunteer post to train women to be pre-school teachers in the popular tourist destination of Vanuatu. But instead of cocktails by the sea in a luxury resort, Bridget found herself in Luganville, a town whose people were still practicing black magic and wearing the same fashions bought in by missionary women in the 1800s. When Bridget decided to enroll the women she was working with in a correspondence teaching course, she could never have predicted the fierce opposition her plan would face.

Road No Good is a ground-level account of the journey of a group of the world’s least fortunate women to become the first educated women on their island and control their own destinies. It is also Bridget’s story, as she learns from these women the art of gratitude, faith and contentment even in the face of unimaginable adversity and loss. This is a true story of hope and heart, and of the resilience and capacity of the human spirit to achieve greatness against the odds.

About the author

Bridget Isichei has worked in the early childhood education sector in New Zealand, England, Thailand, and Vanuatu. She has been recognized as an early childhood education (ECE) center manager for achieving an "excellent rating" ranking her ECE service in Australia's top 30. Bridget has been nominated for the HESTA advancing pedagogy and practice award and has written for Australia's most prominent early childhood education publication, Every Child Magazine.

SOLD Travels of a Somali refugee

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney, NSW

Mint condition. PB. 256pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

An inspirational and uplifting memoir, this is the story of an optimistic man and his journey of struggle, hardship and survival against the odds.

Abdi's world fell apart when he was only thirteen and his home was destroyed in Somalia's vicious civil war. Effectively an orphan, he fled Mogadishu with 300 others and headed to Kenya. On the way, death squads hunted them and they daily faced violence, danger and starvation. After almost four months, they arrived in Kenya - of the three hundred that set out, only five had survived.

All alone in the world, Abdi made his way first back to Mogadishu, to search for his family, then onto Romania, where he lived for a time with gypsies, then to Germany. He was fifteen years old when he arrived in Melbourne. He had no English, family or friends. Homeless for the first year, he slept in churches and mosques. One lunchtime, he was bashed by three men in suits in Melbourne's CBD. Yet, against these odds, he survived. In fact, he's done more than just survive. Abdi went on to complete secondary education and attended university. He became a youth worker, was acknowledged with the 2007 Victorian Refugee Recognition Award and was featured in the SBS second series of Go Back to Where You Came From.

Despite what he has suffered, Abdi is the most extraordinary and inspiring man, who is constantly thankful for his life and what he has. Along his journey, Abdi met many, many other refugees. He knows quite a few who, faced with the same circumstances that he did, did not make it. Some died, some gave up, some committed suicide, and some became bitter. Abdi did not. Everything he has endured and achieved is testament to his quiet strength and courage, his resilience and most of all, his shining and enduring optimism.

On the frontline fighting against ISIL

 

Mint condition. PB. 352pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

The gripping story of one woman's war against ISIS on the frontlines of Syria.

Joanna Palani made headlines across the world in 2016 when her role fighting on the front line of the Syrian conflict was revealed. She is one of a handful of western women who have joined the international recruits to the Kurdish forces in Syria and is the first woman fighter to tell her story.

Joanna was born to Iranian-Kurdish parents in a refugee camp in Iraq, before her family were accepted in to Denmark. During the Arab Spring, Joanna realised she needed to do something to protect the values she believes in, and the culture she loves. Leaving behind her life as a student, Joanna underwent considerable military training and travelled to the Middle East, where she spent time over several years fighting on the front line, including at the devastating battle for Kobani.

Despite her heroism, Joanna was taken in to custody on her return to Denmark for breaking laws designed to stop its citizens from joining ISIS, making her the first person to be jailed for joining the international coalition. Joanna now lives in Copenhagen under daily threat from ISIS supporters, as she continues her fight for women's rights off the front line.

Reporting on Putin's other genocide

 

RARE BOOK. Very good condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

In Chechnya: A Small Victorious War Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal tell the full story of how the Kremlin came to embark on such an ill-judged military adventure and how the Chechen fighters fought back. Switching between Chechnya and Moscow, the authors cover the whole sweep of the war from the horrendous destruction of the Russian invasion to the Chechens’ dramatic retaliation to force the Russian army out.

The book traces the roots of the conflict: the Chechens’ history of resistance to the Russian empire, the rogue state set up by the eccentric general-turned-president Jokhar Dudayev as the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Kremlin court politics that precipitated the decision to invade Chechnya.

With its exclusive material and eye-witness reporting, Chechnya: A Small Victorious War is the definitive account of the most tragic and extraordinary story to emerge from the end of the Soviet Union. It is also the story of the flamboyant, anarchic and unyielding Chechens and their struggle for survival.

SOLD A refugee travels from war-torn Yemen to America

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney

Mint condition. PB. 336pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

A gripping account of terror and escape." -- New York Times Book Review

The Fox Hunt tells one young man's unforgettable story of his harrowing escape from Yemen's brutal civil war with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West.

WINNER: 2019 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS - A 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS FINALIST

Born in the Old City of Sana'a, Yemen, to a pair of middle-class doctors, Mohammed Al Samawi was a devout Muslim raised to think of Christians and Jews as his enemy. But when Mohammed was twenty-three, he secretly received a copy of the Bible, and what he read cast doubt on everything he'd previously believed. After connecting with Jews and Christians on social media, and at various international interfaith conferences, Mohammed became an activist, making it his mission to promote dialogue and cooperation in Yemen.

Then came the death threats: first on Facebook, then through terrifying anonymous phone calls. To protect himself and his family, Mohammed fled to the southern port city of Aden. He had no way of knowing that Aden was about to become the heart of a north-south civil war, and the battleground for a well-funded proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. As gunfire and grenades exploded throughout the city, Mohammed hid in the bathroom of his apartment and desperately appealed to his contacts on Facebook.

Miraculously, a handful of people he barely knew responded. Over thirteen days, four ordinary young people with zero experience in diplomacy or military exfiltration worked across six technology platforms and ten time zones to save this innocent young man trapped between deadly forces-- rebel fighters from the north and Al Qaeda operatives from the south.

The story of an improbable escape as riveting as the best page-turning thrillers, The Fox Hunt reminds us that goodness and decency can triumph in the darkest circumstances.