Product Description

At eighteen, your closest friend commits suicide.

At twenty-nine, you’re backpacking in the Australian outback when you see her. She has a husband. She has a ten-year-old son. She has a baby on the way. She claims to be someone else. But you’d recognise her anywhere.

Back in England you tell your journalist boyfriend. While he never knew her, he always knew of her – her name is Daisy Fraser and she was awaiting trial over the deaths of four people when she jumped off the Severn Bridge. He thinks: This could be the scoop of the century. He says: Happy Christmas – I’m taking you to Australia to find Daisy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246006 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Emily Barr has written columns and travel pieces for the Observer and the Guardian for several years, and her previous novels Backpack and Baggage were critically acclaimed. She lives in the south of France with her husband and two sons.

Customer Reviews

Baggage - emily barr
I really enjoyed this book, very down to earth and you can put yourself in the parts of all the characters as the author describes/writes about them very well. The plot wasn't what I expected but the way the story unfolds keeps you gripped wanting to find out what happens. Open ended finale but it makes you realise it doesn't matter what the end is, it is the journey you have gone on with the characters (still, would have like to know what happened). I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much if I hadn't been to the Aussie outback though. A good holiday read ;-)

Witty and gripping follow-up from last year's big discovery
What a read!

Last year's 'Backpack' - Barr's debut novel - was a treat and a real discovery, so I eagerly awaited this, her second novel.

'Baggage' is the story of what happens when you decide that life is simply too much, and you need to get out - in this case faking your own death.

'Baggage' is gripping from beginning to end, and wittier still than Backpack. Having travelled to the Australian Outback (where much of the novel is set) - I can vouch for the authenticity of the descriptions, many of which (especially of the outlandish characters) had me in stiches.

Barr again draws on what she knows through experience as a journalist and more specifically a travel writer.

I thoroughly recommend this. Ideal to take on holiday and again, a real page turner.

lost two stars for ending
I enjoyed every page of this book and was completely engrossed. I loved the fact that the characters were not cliched or predictable and the that you could expect them to behave in many different ways like a real human being.
The only problem was the open ending. I don't expect a book to wrap everything up neatly but this was so unecessary. There was a very specific question that the book posed throughout- what would happen to Daisy/Lina when she was discovered?
How can you write a whole book about one theme and then not give the information that the reader is waiting for?
It may not be true but it just looked like the writer didn't know what to do next and I wished I hadn't been so involved because it was a waste of time really.