For fans of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.
At twenty-seven, Laine Cunningham seemed to have it all: tons of friends, a college degree, plenty of all-night parties, and a secure job. Yet every morning she dragged herself through a life that was corporatized and overly industrialized, a life that falsely glamorized everything she was supposed to want.
Guided only by a map pulled from an old copy of National Geographic, she camped in the Australian Outback for six months…and she did it alone.
Traveling in a time before Expedia or Travelocity, and without any guidebook or travel guide from Lonely Planet, the trip was never intended to be a vacation. Instead, it was a search for something deeper, something that lay inside. Cheap plane tickets or the cost of the airfare were far less important than the investment Laine made in herself.
The self-guided adventure tour around the country covered nearly 17, 000 miles. Hostels were preferred to hotels, and then only when camping under the stars wasn’t an option. Otherwise, her best accommodation was the red sand and her only travel guide was her instinct about where on the map to explore next.
Told with warm humor and sparked with suspense, the search revealed a woman’s most important discovery: herself.
Laine Cunningham, a three-time recipient of The Hackney Award, writes fiction that takes readers around the world. Her debut novel, The Family Made of Dust, is set in the Australian Outback, while Reparation is a novel of the American Great Plains. She is the editor of Sunspot Literary Journal.
Cuprins
Introduction
Touchdown, Sydney
Orphan
The Way to a Galah’s Heart
Road Robbers
Woman Alone
Opal Fever
Crystal Fire
Seventy Feet Under
Frontier Justice
Death in the Fields
Noodling
Burgers and Donuts
Krispy Kreme
Dingo Fence
Lady Emu
God’s Girlfriend
Snack Food
As Bad as All That
Taking Flight
Camp Tunes
Uluru
An Education
A Wild Companion
The Locals
Mapping the Wilderness
Temporary Companion
Aussie Fables
Precious Gifts
Beautiful Sites with Beautiful Sights
Cradle Rocker
Bloody Tourists
The Clever Man
Stolen Children
Silence
Killer Caterpillars
Bush Tucker
Witchetties
Waiting
Man Alone
Road Crew
White Ants
Red Glow
Lakeview
Steaks and Snakes
Assistant Rancher
Tipping at Windmills
Thirst
A Killing
Muster
The Good Life
Shag on a Rock
Cat for Dinner
Stinging Nasties
Paradise
Grandfather
Careless Breaths
A Helping Hand
American Dreaming
Frog Juice
A Manly Yam
Fifty Million Bushflies
Crocodile Snack
Sea Snake
Guerilla Travel
Please Don’t Squeeze the Dolphins
Razor Fish
Car Park
Saying Goodbye
A Free Sample From Seven Sisters: Spiritual Messages From Aboriginal Australia
A Free Sample From The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback
Other Works by Laine Cunningham
About the Author