One for the Road

Six thousand miles from home, American journalist Tony Horwitz toils away at the daily paper in Sydney, Australia, eager to explore the less American aspects of the continent. With his hitching finger, a lively smile, engaging conversation, and a backpack filled with the necessities of life, Horwitz entrusts himself to the care of farmers, Aborigines, card sharks, opal diggers, and aimless travelers, who show him that hitchhiking through the outback can seem like an extended pub crawl. Bug-bitten and sunburned, he travels a barren landscape that requires "un-superlatives" to describe its scenic "un-ness, " finding vibrancy instead in the people, the adventures, and the ubiquity of beer cans. He witnesses an Aboriginal circumcision in Tennant Creek, watches Halley's Comet soar over Alice Springs, goes crayfishing in Perth, and participates in a Passover Seder with the only Jewish family in Broome.

With keen wit and an open mind, the author of Confederates in the Attic finds humor and irreverence everywhere he visits in this vivid evocation of his freewheeling journey.