The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Finkler Question went Down Under - and this is what he found...
Arriving in Darwin to lost luggage and stifling temperatures, Howard Jacobson is not quite sure why he's in Australia, but he's determined to make the most of it. Undaunted, and somewhat bemused, by the challenge of travelling all the way around the sixth largest country in the world, Jacobson goes in search of small-town and outback Australia. Along the way, he recounts his brushes with locals of every ilk and ponders questions of Aboriginal land rights, national identity, and the most flummoxing matter of all: the Australian male. Wittily and incisively capturing the idiosyncrasies and idiocies of all he encounters, In the Land of Oz is a hugely affectionate portrait of life in Australia.
About the Author
An award-winning writer and broadcaster, Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester, brought up in Prestwich and was educated at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield, and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under F. R. Leavis. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His novels include The Mighty Walzer (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), Kalooki Nights (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize) the highly acclaimed The Act of Love and, most recently, the Man Booker Prize 2010-winning The Finkler Question. Howard Jacobson lives in London.
Industry Reviews
'The most successful attempt I know to grip the great dreaming Australian enigma by the throat and make it gargle' * Evening Standard *
'A wildly funny account of his travels; abounding in sharp characterization, crunching dialogue and self-parody, it actually is a book which makes you laugh out loud on almost every page ... A sharp, skilful and brilliantly funny book' * Literary Review *
'A marvellous read ... he is a comic explorer in the grandest mould' * Financial Times *
'Entertaining ... this is a book about exotic Australia - the fringes, the deserts, the opal mines, the Aborigines, and the North Queensland rednecks' * Guardian *
